Matthew Bourne’s career-defining, worldwide hit is now in its 15th year, but has lost nothing of its gripping impact. Bourne has refreshed it with a hands on production, but apart from very minor changes it’s the same work.

A major misconception, among people who have not seen it, is that it’s an ‘all male’ Swan Lake, when in fact a third of the cast are women. All the swans, however, are men, but they’re not tutu-clad cross-dressers like the Trocs. Lez Brotherston has created the now iconic feathery leggings, above which they are bare chested, and Bourne has made them powerful and aggressive, and actually more swan-like than Ivanov’s delicate lady swans of the original. But of course this does shift the balance of the story.

Dominated by his mother, and suffering from a major identity crisis, the immature and vulnerable Prince (excellent Dominic North) meets The Swan and is immediately captivated by this exotic creature. The Swan’s feelings are more complex. There is a long, intense duet in which their attraction is sealed, and in which the besotted Prince abandons himself to his overwhelming new love.

In the second act The Swan appears at the palace party as ‘The Stranger’, a kind of male Odile, though we don’t know for sure whether he really is The Swan transformed. A sexy figure in black leather trousers, he dominates and mystifies all who are there, and almost seduces the Queen herself – a haughty performance from Nina Goldman.

Finally it is the swans who threaten and kill their leader in a remarkable Hitchcockian scene, appearing from under, behind and even through the bed he is lying on. To them his love for a human has been a betrayal.

This is a striking, violent, moving piece of work, but there are some moments of humour too, particularly in the spoof 19th-century ballet, in which a sylph and her attendant butterflies are saved from three goblins by a hilarious, axe-wielding woodsman.

Maddy Brennan as The Girlfriend, a social-climbing bimbo, also gets a lot of laughs. But at heart, like the original, this is a serious tale of a man’s – or a swan’s – quest after an unattainable love.

I missed the first night as I was reviewing Jasmin Vardimon (see Page 5). This turned out to be an advantage, as I saw the debut of Chris Trenfield as The Swan. No trace of nerves here – this was a magnificent performance – powerful, alluring, seductive, irresistible.

Anyone who has heard this work called homo-erotic, and thinks the male swans only appeal to gay men, should have heard the screams of delight from the ladies during the curtain calls!

n Swan Lake is at Milton Keynes until Saturday (0844 871 7652 – www.ambassadortickets.com), and at the Birmingham Hippodrome all next week.