An unexpected wake-up call

They say lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice, but Royal Ballet director Monica Mason must feel like it does. For the second year running, she came on stage on the opening night of The Sleeping Beauty to announce that one of her lead dancers had been injured and that we would have to wait for a replacement.

Last year it was Royal Ballet Queen Bee Darcey Bussell; this year it was Johan Kobborg, one of the Royal's finest men. Those with sharp eyes will have noticed he winced during a tricky turn in Act Two barely minutes after he'd come on stage. It didn't look like much, but the curtain soon came down and he was whisked away for an X-ray.

Cue the announcement that Federico Bonelli, an Italian-born dancer new to the Company, was taking over. Alina Cojocaru, the opening night Aurora, looked nervous - little wonder, given that she's rarely danced with Bonelli and he wasn't scheduled to make his debut in Beauty until 10 March.

All this rather took your mind off the production, which was created last year by the former Kirov ballerina and Soviet-era defector, Natalia Makarova.

Nobody much liked it then, although new productions have a habit of bedding in, with unpopular elements disappearing and the shock of the new soon becoming safely familiar.

However, this Beauty doesn't yet feel quite at home, more a series of dances than a cohesive, big-scale ballet. Dance wise, several performances lacked authority, with Lauren Cuthbertson's Lilac Fairy not making the impression that the role requires.

There was also so-so dancing from the Fairies in the Prologue and Act Three, and some of the storybook characters looked mismatched. Another problem was wonky stage positions, not what you want with this precision ballet, and the crumpled back cloth in Act Two spoiled the scenic illusion.

However, there was a good performance from Zenaida Yanowsky as the Wicked Fairy, while Ivan Putrov fairly soared as the Bluebird. Cojocaru performed well given the circumstances, and Bonelli proved that he's a useful man to know in a crisis.Everyone else, though, just looked relieved to have got through unscathed.

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The Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty