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At the same time, the backdrop images are of buildings still standing from Shakespeare's Verona. And the lush costuming for the ballroom scene would not look out of place in a more traditional production, say by the Royal Ballet.

Choreographer Christopher Hampson and costume and set designer Tracy Grant take these images from disparate eras and weave them into a timeless, seamless whole, emphasising the universality of Shakespeare's cruellest of tales.

Grant's stage design is actually quite clever - a large wall swings back and forth, to rapidly change scenes from ballroom to balcony to bedroom. And the simple addition of a fly bearing a cross turns bedroom to chapel, and bedroom to crypt.

The strong narrative results in a theatrical, operatic ballet. Prokofiev's score provides the base for this, with its clear themes for each of the major characters. Hampson mirrors these themes with repeating choreographic motifs - "face-feeling" by Romeo and Juliet in the bedroom scene, and then again in the crypt; a lift by Lord Capulet as he proffers his daughter to prospective husband Paris in Act 1, and a far more forceful repeat in Act 3, by which time she is older, wiser, and already wed.

Craig Lord and Megan Futcher are exquisite as Romeo and Juliet. Eyes only for each other on their first meeting, they capture perfectly the joy of that moment that leads to the first kiss, the unashamed passion of the wedding night, and the desolate grief at a lover's death.

Others of note are Ben Conquest as a Chaplinesque Mercutio, and Geordan Wilcox as Tybalt. The latter's stage presence conveys all the hot-blooded passion one expects from a bad-boy clan lieutenant.

And what a rare treat for Christchurch ballet audiences - live music. Other festival commitments mean it is a short line-up from the Christchurch Symphony that appears under the baton of Gavin Sutherland, but they pack all the punch required for the rafter-rattling moments, and produce all the bitter sweetness needed at other times.

The cheers at curtain-call said it all - bravo!