The second offering of the Royal Ballet's hugely successful eight-day stay in Belfast is a trio of sharply contrasting masterworks by Frederick Ashton, the company's founder choreographer.
Lyricism, pin-sharp precision and sheer prettiness are just some of Ashton's trademark qualities, nowhere more evident than in his gorgeous Les Patineurs (The Skaters). It is thrilling in 1998 to watch a piece that is a virtual replica, in almost every detail of set, costumes and choreography, of its original incarnation over 60 years ago.
Against a winter wonderland of frosty trees, Chinese lanterns and white latticed trellises, the younger members of the company are given the opportunity to shine in the Victorian skating party vision, shared by Ashton and Constant Lambert, who arranged Meyerbeer's score.
None takes up that opportunity with greater alacrity than tiny Miyako Yoshida, whose dazzling fouettes glittered across the stage like quicksilver. The centrepiece of the evening is the glorious, large-scale ensemble piece, sublimely danced to the score of Elgar's Enigma Variations. In Julia Trevelyan Oman's lush Edwardian country house set, bearing overtones of upper-crust British Imperialism, the composer and his friends gather in illustration of the characters who shaped this wonderful piece of music. The slow, stately Nimrod pas de trois between Christopher Saunders's Elgar, Elizabeth McGorian as his wife Caroline and his muse, the German A.J. Jaeger (Luke Heydon), was beautifully played by the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Quinn, and sent shivers down the collective spine of the hushed capacity audience.
The final ballet was the shiny, spangled, gift-wrapped Birthday Offering, a Russian-influenced showcase for seven ballerinas and their partners, created in celebration of the company's 25th anniversary in 1956. The vivacious Sarah Wildor charmingly filled in for the injured Darcey Bussell at the climax of an evening, which provided the perfect complement to the passion and drama of Manon earlier in the week.