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The best bits now look very good indeed, most especially the lovely series of dances for Sylvia and her nymphs in Act 1, which could be extracted and done on its own as a master class in how to choreograph for an ensemble. It makes me think, too, that though Sylvia may find true love in the arms of her young shepherd, she'll always feel a slight regret for the freedom and happiness of her life in the sacred wood. (There's a moment in Act 2, when she hears the distant horn call from the forest, that tempts her very strongly to return, and it's only Eros's quick thinking in conjuring up a vision of the waiting Aminta that tips the balance.) The big pas de deux in the third act is also very beautiful - Ashton in top gear - even if the opening night's cast didn't manage to reveal all of its tenderness.

The last time I saw Darcey Bussell's Sylvia was at her debut performance, when she was still visibly struggling to get her long legs round the choreography designed for the very different physique of Margot Fonteyn. Reports later in that run spoke of vast improvements from night to night, and this year she certainly looks much happier and more in control. There are still some passages that elude her - in the long, long pizzicatti solo for instance, she is still defeated by the very last section; but in other phrases she looks wonderfully elegant. I think we have to accept that at this stage of her career she's not suddenly going to turn into a great actress: she's learned a lot over the last few years about how to differentiate her roles, but in this ballet at least the charming, sunny-natured Bussell dominates, and in the big seduction scene she's sweetly naughty rather than teasingly alluring - but then who knows, maybe that's just what Orion most likes.
 

Roberto Bolle is in many ways the exact male equivalent of Bussell - tall, good looking, with a fluent technique and oodles of college-boy appeal - and their similarity has its good and bad sides: good in that they look wonderful together, bad in that they're too alike to strike sparks off each other dramatically, so that their final pas de deux doesn't carry much emotion. When he's on his own, Bolle looks very much at home as Aminta, convincingly young, and charming enough to distract our attention from the fact that he doesn't do very much - nothing, in fact - to win his girl, and apparently is quite happy to overlook the fact that she's shot him dead early on in their courtship.

It must be a strange evening for whoever's playing Diana, appearing only five minutes before the end, in a terrible rage, and having to run through defiance, consternation, fond recollection and loving forgiveness in not much longer than it takes to type that list. It would make a great audition piece for an aspiring dance-actress, and Mara Galeazzi tears into it with the appetite of one determined to show that there's no such thing as a minor role. I also much admired the blue-clad goat, Jose Martin, who managed to bring some wit and panache to his near-impossible task whilst remaining totally uncute: a deeply impressive achievement. Martin Harvey (Eros) and Thiago Soares (Orion) repeated the success they both had in the same roles last season, and to judge by the reception at the end of the evening, the packed Saturday night house had a very good time.