Coppelia is a light-hearted comedy ballet, but it’s also the tale of a cruel trick played on Dr Coppelius, the enigmatic dollmaker. His masterpiece, Coppelia, sits in the window, apparently reading. Frantz, Swanilda’s fiancé, falls for her. A jealous Swanilda steals into the house, finds Coppelia is just a doll and takes her place. When Dr Coppelius tries to bring his doll to life, Swanilda responds. The poor old man is over the moon, only to find out from a mocking Swanilda that he’s been tricked. So there’s an underlying bitterness here, when cranky Dr Coppelius is played as such a likeable old eccentric by Oleksiy Burakov.

The Russian Classical Ballet Theatre’s Swanilda is Kristina Terentieva, winner of this year’s gold medal at Varna, the world’s most prestigious ballet competition. Technically, as I wrote about her Swan Lake, she is superb, and here she brings the charm of a young soubrette to the role of Swanilda; mischievous, daring, loving, but certainly no push-over. When she sees Frantz blowing kisses to Coppelia it’s clear she won’t forgive lightly. When she finds the key to Dr Coppelius’s house, it takes a lot of courage to lead her friends up to his spooky workshop; and when she discovers Coppelia’s true nature and takes her place, her acting is first class as her movements become gradually less jerky, until she is dancing easily, sending the doctor beside himself with delight in the belief that his creation has come to life.

In the third act, which is a celebration of the town’s new bell, and of Swanilda’s marriage to the forgiven Frantz, she sparkles as expected in the grand pas de deux, while her husband Alexei Terentiev, as Frantz, provides an excellent supporting act without ever stealing her thunder.

This is a fine production from an excellent company, in which the faults I reported two years ago have been corrected. But I’m sad to report that this was probably the last time, at least for the present, that we shall see Ellen Kent’s dancers here, as the apparently indefatigable producer is taking a couple of years off.