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Most of the first night gremlins which so delight in bedevilling Royal Ballet productions seemed to be absent (just the one crunch as some furniture got knocked over in Act 1) and the cast from the children upwards projected an engaging enthusiasm. Although there were some great performances from the Sugar Plum Fairy and her partner in the closing sections of the work, it was the company as a whole that impressed – a sense of strength in depth and being firmly on their home ground in this richly detailed and grand production.

Iohna Loots was pleasingly girlish as Clara, who receives the Nutcracker doll as a Christmas present from her godfather, Drosselmeyer (Gary Avis). He swirls about the Stahlbaum’s Christmas party in his huge magician’s cloak, performing tricks to delight the guests. Christmas at Clara’s parents is the epitome of what a 19th century Christmas should be in Julia Trevelyan Oman’s richly detailed and evocative designs (the lighting of the tree: a visit from St Nicholas). Clara’s obstreperous young brother Fritz had a decidedly more modern sulky bratishness about him though: you could find him an any sitting room come Christmas Eve this year. The “dolls” introduced by Drosselmeyer for the entertainment of the guests were nicely done by Joshua Tuifua and Victoria Hewitt (Harlequin and Columbine) and Martin Harvey and Lauren Cutherberston (Soldier and Vivandiere). The small children in the cast watched them with real intensity.

The transformation scene, when Clara, returning in search of her doll, is confronted by a mysterious Drosselmeyer and a hugely growing tree and massively expanding furniture still is able to enthral those in the audience who have been fed a diet of endless film special effects. Old fashioned theatrical magic and illusion still remains potent. Clara now meets her Nutcracker (Ricardo Cervera): and one of Wright’s additions to the text derived from Ivanov is a little duet for them. This is trickier than it looks and has been a treacherous section for previous exponents of the roles. Cervera’s strengths are as an individual and in his clarity of line rather than as a partner: he and Loots could have been more together at some moments but there were no mishaps.

The various dances in Act 2 in the land of the sweets were very strongly cast. Paul Kay and Stephen McRae (aided by Cervera) did a particularly lively version of the Russian dance which got a big response. Isabel McMeekan was agreeably sinuous in the Arabian (always a moment for the dads in the audience, I think). Mara Galeazzi was the elegant Rose Fairy, with some fine dancing from her escorts (Harvey, Hristov, Sasaki, Soares) and her flowers included Chapman, Lamb, Cuthbertson and Morera. All this sounds very starry indeed, and it was, but there was much more to come.

Miyako Yoshida’s Sugar Plum Fairy was a pure delight, a performance of dignity and grace with a ballerina’s authority. Every nuance of that gorgeous music seemed to be savoured. She never seemed to be hurried and always seemed to have all the time in the world no matter how fast the music. Nothing was blurred or rushed, each step given its proper value. Bonelli was a thoughtful partner in whom she seemed to have confidence, and his own variations were cleanly executed. They got a passionate response from the audience, and after seeing this I felt a real pang of regret that Yoshida is not cast as Aurora later this season.

Wright’s ending to the work shows Drosselmeyer’s nephew, Hans Peter, freed of his enchantment in the form of the Nutcracker doll returning home for Christmas. It is a warm hearted and probably rather sentimental image, but it feels the right thing for this production. Grand and glittering though the Kingdom of the Sweets is, this returns us to something a little more like the real world, just as we must leave the theatre.

A brief note: the programme includes the text of Petipa’s instructions to Tchaikovsky for the score of the Nutcracker, reprinted from the book by Roland John Wiley. A sample “Arabia…Coffee Mocha. Oriental Dance. From 24 to 32 bars of charming and voluptuous music”. He certainly knew how to carry out his commission.