Royal Ballet Triple Bill, Royal Opera House, London

Steven McRae in Ashton’s ‘Rhapsody’

I have, by the best of good fortune, seen every great male virtuoso danseur of the past 50 and more years. I started young, and they were thin on the ground. Latterly, bravura dancing of the first water has been more frequent, and Mikhail Baryshnikov was one of the most sublime virtuosos (as well as artists) of these later years. Frederick Ashton celebrated his gifts – of easiest-seeming virtuosity, of emotional subtlety – in Rhapsody, yet we are now seeing performances in this radiant ballet, by Sergey Polunin and Steven McRae, that rival my memories of Baryshnikov’s genius.

I have written about Polunin’s grand account. As for McRae’s appearance in the central role, I report that I was dazzled, bowled over, knocked sideways, blown away – take your pick of ecstatic responses. I make no secret of my admiration for his gifts, for the burnished Brancusi clarity, the speed and intelligence of his performances in many roles. But in this account (his third) of Rhapsody’s central figure, we saw transcendental skill, flawless musicality, a virtuoso’s command of effect, of phrasing, of the minutiae of an interpretation, which at moments defied belief.

McRae cannot have so controlled pirouettes that they boasted a miraculous inner logic and life. It is impossible to turn as fast as he does and yet still be master of impetus, and place the movement so ideally on the music’s phrase. Beaten steps, the most extravagant flights of bravura, all these blazed, flowered, lingered on the retina like the after-images of fireworks. And in those moments of emotion, when the danseur must seek – and find – his beloved (here the beautifully responsive Alina Cojocaru), McRae was eloquent, touching. His performance must be filmed: not to do so would be to betray an amazing and magnificent dancer.

This triple bill also included Alastair Marriott’s Sensorium, its dances placed under the time-frozen and breaking wave of Adam Wiltshire’s beautiful setting, its action to be found on far Betelgeuse, where ecstatic beings move and pose and take part in rituals to Debussy preludes. Marriott is finely musical, listening to his score and shaping his danced responses with a penetrating understanding. Mara Galeazzi and Melissa Hamilton exquisitely led the rites. We watch, and we should delight in the mysteries we observe.

The programme ends with David Bintley’s “Still Life” at the Penguin Café.

Royal Opera House