First the good news. Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, created in 1948 and so the first full-length British ballet, is back after too long an absence. Its swooning Prokofiev score, full of sharp reminders that midnight is about to strike, is as entrancing as ever.
On opening night, for this new Royal Ballet production, it starred Marianela Nuñez, who brings to the heroine a whole-hearted goodness, delicate arched feet and a speed and lightness that make her radiant both as a put-upon drudge dancing with a broom and as a transformed beauty, winning her prince’s heart at the ball.
