There's a downside, of course, some though not all of it inevitably created by the financial pressures which every company in the world struggles with. Long runs of Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet fill the house but leave less room for more interesting triple bills and for new work, and it's getting harder to justify expensive revivals, even of the Ashton and MacMillan ballets which once defined the company and made it unique. Director Monica Mason has assembled a fine line-up of principal dancers, but at the cost of allowing the ranks of female senior soloists to become seriously depleted: fortunately she's gone some way to fixing that during this last season by giving far more opportunities for younger dancers to show what they can do. Another change for the better is that the company management is putting a lot of effort and money into ways of letting more people see performances, using direct relays to screens round the country as well as recording and distributing far more programmes than we got, say, ten years ago; a welcome development in the absence of any sign of a return to tours of the UK. The company also seems, at last, to be sorting out the problems with its online booking system which have been a major annoyance for ticket-buyers over the last few years.

So while longterm supporters may wish for more adventurous programming, there's still much pleasure to be had from tried and tested favourites and some wonderfully talented dancers; and if you're coming new to ballet, this is a great place to start.