KEY POINTS:
Was a Cinderella ever more exquisitely dressed for the ball?
The Royal New Zealand Ballet's sparkling new production is a triumph of costume and design by Tracy Grant Lord, and lucid, lovely storytelling by choreographer Christopher Hampson.
From the gloom of the opening scene - the funeral of little Cinderella's mother, and the faded interior of the room stripped of its former elegance and happiness - where we first meet the teenage heroine, blossoms a magnificently magical garden.
A huge curlicue of a rose tree is romantically flushed in the most subtle shades of pink and green. In contrast, the ballroom scene is more sharply drawn in dramatic black and rose pink and lit by a row of magnificent chandeliers.
Cinderella's ballgown glitters with clustered crystals, the prince wears rosy velvet with its own share of sparkle, the fairy godmother's costume and the other ballgowns are bowed and beautiful. But most wondrous of all are the magical creatures summoned to create Cinderella's transformation - a stunning, grasshopper-green dancing master, shoe-making silkmoths and dressmaking spiders.
Wonderful lighting, by Nick Schlieper, truly illuminates all these visual riches.
Then there is the dancing.
Yu Takayama, Cinderella in the first cast, is always exquisite and her prince, Xi Huan, has the biggest and boldest leaps and turns. But it was the Dancing Master/Grasshopper, Craig Lord, who was the most stunning on Auckland's opening night, making the quirky and eccentric choreography his own, and rousing spontaneous outbursts of delight from the audience.
The step-sisters - the mean and nasty "Tall" (Clytie Campbell) and the dim-witted but loveable, and totally hilarious "Short" (Alessia Lugioboni) - create their own comic riot and well-sustained subplot.
Turid Revfiem, the company's ballet mistress, steps out on stage as a compelling stepmother (sharp emerald green gown, black stockings with a wicked flash of high, bare thigh).
Vivencio Samblaceno Jr, another company senior, is Cinderella's father, and plays this pivotal role with dramatic conviction.
There is elegant dancing aplenty at the ball and the garden chorus of Roses and the Legs lineup make subtle references to other classical triumphs.
Hampson - and Grant Lord - take a huge bow.
