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There's been some minor tidying up - the children in the very first scene have been cut, for instance - and more important work done on the end of the second act. Last year's attempt at staging the Panorama went horribly wrong, leaving us looking at an empty stage for what seemed like an eternity. Now the Prince has his journey in the magic boat restored, and so far that has worked well (fingers crossed - Covent Garden's record with this sort of thing is not good). But the confrontation between the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse - the climax of the struggle between good and evil - is still badly muffed, and could easily leave people new to the ballet with no idea what had happened. And yes, we do see rather less of Cupid before: he's been removed from the scenes where he was trespassing on the Lilac Fairy's territory, but he still reduces the first act curtain to bathos.
 

The opening night was a curiously subdued affair, even before the accident which took Johan Kobborg out and made the rest of the evening a bit edgy. No-one in the Prologue really woke the audience up, and with Carabosse's big exit getting hardly a spatter of applause these days, it wasn't till we got to the garland dance that I felt any real warmth being generated. (Though that's skipping over Vanessa Palmer as one of the knitting women and William Tuckett's fine acting as he changes his mind about having her and her friends executed.) Alina Cojocaru's Rose Adagio was prettily and stylishly danced with only one or two moments where she let the tension show, and she was a sweet, dutiful and charming Princess - it seems ungrateful to wish for a character with a bit more bite to it, but I do hope she'll find her way to a more complex portrayal as she grows into the role.

Act 2 had hardly got going before Kobborg disappeared - there was time to admire Genesia Rosato's warm, sophisticated Countess and to wish Philip Mosley's Tutor would fuss a bit less, and then we were sitting with the house lights up waiting for Federico Bonelli to change and warm up. Of course a dancer coming on in these circumstances can't lose - sympathy for him will excuse any wobbles or mistakes - but in fact he and Cojocaru made a fine, professional job of an unfortunate situation. There were some very, very careful fishdives in the Act 3 pas de deux, whilst the audience held its breath, but any other problems they encountered were well hidden.
 

The wedding divertissements had an exceptionally charming White Cat in Natasha Oughtred, and I thought Deirdre Chapman much more in command of the Jewels section than when she first did it. Ivan Putrov has, mercifully, cut down on the glitzy make-up and the Ruzimatov-style posing which cluttered up his Bluebird last year, and his stylish, light dancing looked much the better for it. His partner, though, was way out of her depth. Lauren Cuthbertson's serenity and growing authority as the Lilac Fairy were one of the constant pleasures of an evening which never really took off. We'll hope that later, uninterrupted performances, will provide more excitement.