A Swan Lake without the essential prop of the crossbow is happily extremely rare. You wait for years, and then two come along together. Last week it was the Siberians on Monday and then the Moscow company on Friday. To be blunt, going all PC about swan-hunting does rather destroy the logic of the story.

The fact that my most vivid memory of Friday's show is of Asset Murzakulov's superb performance as the Jester (a role that doesn't even belong in the work) says a lot about this production; and yet there isn't really much wrong with it. Tatiana Krasnova (pictured) looks just right as Odette, and transforms effectively enough into Odile; but it's a pity that she is robbed of the extended mime sequence in which she explains her fate, and is reduced to simply bouree-ing about to fill in the music - the dance equivalent of marking time. Talgat Kazhabayev, an unusually tall dancer, looks handsome and princely, and dances and partners well. I greatly like his unusual moment of concern in Act III, when he quite clearly doubts that the svelte seductress who has gatecrashed the ball can really be the ethereal creature he met by the lake. Adel Kinzikeev is an excellent von Rothbart, but being almost a foot shorter than Prince Siegfried makes him dramatically less threatening than he should be.

All in all this is a perfectly enjoyable performance that just doesn't quite touch the heights - except for the wonderful Murzakulov, who simply lights up the stage. The Jester's role has been changed since I saw this production three years ago; he no longer cavorts irritatingly at inappropriate moments, but elsewhere he has more to do. An androgynous creature, with a painted smile and rosy cheeks, he brings the show alive as a kind of master of ceremonies, leading the dances, admiring the foreign princesses, worrying about the prince, combining a stunning technique with a mesmerizing theatricality.