This is, in every sense, a real Sleeping Beauty - a revival of the Royal Ballet's first ever production, which had been in mothballs for nearly 40 years before artistic director Monica Mason gave it the kiss of life in 2006.
It's still as fresh as ever, with Watteau-and-gauze designs from Oliver Messel that leave plenty of space not just for the dancing to expand into but also the imagination.
There could hardly be a more Watteau-esque Aurora - combining the delicacy of a porcelain princess with the vigour of a milkmaid - than Sarah Lamb, standing in for the injured Akane Takada.
A missed hand-hold early in the rose adagio had her four suitors nervously crowding around subsequently, to rush in and catch her after each unsupported balance. Creditably, Lamb treated them all with the gentle disdain appropriate to someone who has Steven McRae waiting in her future.
The flame-haired McRae is the kind of leading man most ballet companies, or fairytale princesses, would kill for. In the breadth of his leaps and the speed of his turns he attempts the near-impossible with the cockiness and calm insouciance of someone convinced that, whatever happens, he will be able to rescue himself, like a cross between Derren Brown and Captain Jack Sparrow.
If the dancing around the stars is on a smaller scale, it is every bit as joyous and stamped with personality. Emma Maguire, Melissa Hamilton and Hikaru Kobayashi show grace, versatility and stamina as fairy godmothers and, later, celebrants at the wedding banquet.
Behind them, among the unnamed retinue of nymphs and courtiers, is a corps that looks studded with soloists of the future.
In rep until Dec 21 (roh.org.uk, 020 7304 4000)
The Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty
Covent Garden
