We are never short of anniversaries to celebrate in the history of British ballet. Next month, it will be the 45th birthday of Kenneth MacMillan's landmark production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. Seldom out of the repertory for more than a season, it has become such a foundation of the company's identity, it's not easy to remember a time before it existed.
Controversially, the premiere cast as the star-crossed lovers in 1965 were Fonteyn and Nureyev, though MacMillan had created the ballet on Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable. All of them, and a succession of following partnerships, brought their own qualities and interpretations to the roles, and the current revival, which opened on Tuesday with the 421st Opera House performance, is dedicated to the memory of Georgina Parkinson, one of the earliest Juliets, who died recently.
Eight casts were scheduled for this latest long run of the ballet, although injuries have resulted in some redistribution. Carlos Acosta is one of the afflicted, and was replaced by a very different kind of dancer, Rupert Pennefather, as Romeo to Tamara Rojo's Juliet. Acosta's absence, you could say, resulted in a lack of "sizzle".
Pennefather, with his fair hair and clean-cut good looks, strikes you as a classic type of well-bred young Englishman making a not very successful shot at Italian temperament. There is the sense of impeccable manners and a certain reserve behind a veneer of passion. His Romeo is a romantic dreamer, but one who could do with more varieties of expression. He is always an elegant dancer, but it wasn't until the balcony scene, when he let rip with the hectic spins and soaring jumps of MacMillan's choreography, that a spark flew - and this was his and Rojo's most effective sequence together. Rojo is a superb Juliet, her dancing flawless throughout, and dramatically completely convincing. At times, it felt as if she was acting for both of them, and needed to.
The strong supporting cast included Jose Martin's impishly taunting Mercutio, Gary Avis as an arrogant Tybalt and Laura Morera's winningly teasing Harlot. Boris Gruzin conducts a full-blooded account of Prokofiev's music.
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Romeo and Juliet was the composer's first full-length narrative ballet, followed by Cinderella. Both are now staples of the international repertory, but his third and last, The Stone Flower, hardly reached the stage in the West. In 2007, the choreographer Michael Corder used much of this score in his ballet The Snow Queen, created for English National Ballet, which the company revived for its current Coliseum season. Julian Philips made the musical arrangements, working in other Prokofiev sources, too, all very deftly to persuade us - almost - that here was an existing full-length ballet score.
Hans Christian Andersen's story tells of the Snow Queen abducting the peasant boy Kay, and of his girlfriend Gerda's quest to find and save him. Corder's production plods in the narrative, and doesn't create characters we can engage with. Crystal Costa is a sweet and devoted Gerda, Yat-Sen Chang is a one-dimensional Kay and Daria Klimentova is icily imperious as the Snow Queen.
Corder's ability to pour out dances has full rein; his big set pieces are the most successful - especially the swirling ensemble waltz in the Snow Queen's palace. A dream scene for Gerda and two men dressed as roses is prettily arranged, but, ironically, soporific. And one can have too much (which we do) of that ballet cliché, gypsies being irrepressibly boisterous.
With Mark Bailey's atmospheric designs (the warm-coloured village scenes contrasted with the frosty, crystalline realm of the Queen), the show looks spectacular, but at the end of a long evening, the feeling remains that something crucial at the heart of it is missing.