The Sleeping Beauty, Royal Opera House, London

Who is the fairest of them all?

There have been six casts so far in Natalia Makarova's new Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden; how do they measure up? Quite a few people found Alina Cojocaru the best Aurora; I can't agree. Yes, the way she used her arms was ravishing, but her feet aren't so lovely, her leg extensions were exaggerated, and for me she concentrated more on display than on meaning. Perhaps she has been working too hard.

My chief admiration goes to Tamara Rojo; her Aurora has a wonderfully serene grace and also brings out all the nuances of style and feeling in the character's three contrasted scenes. She even gives the solos really musical smoothness in spite of the curlicues Makarova has added. This is the ballerina quality the ballet needs.

Her performance was interesting, besides, for introducing a most promising new male dancer. Thiago Soares, a Brazilian in his early twenties. He has unusually long arms and legs which he uses to good effect, and looks to be an excellent partner, giving strong support and responding to his ballerina's moods, too. He hasn't yet fully mastered that demanding last solo, but the rest of his dances are high, wide and handsome. Gratifyingly, too, he showed strength and clarity as an actor on another night when he played the contrasting role of the wicked fairy Carabosse.

I much enjoyed the partnership of Miyako Yoshida and Johan Kobborg in the leads. They, like Rojo, went for the good old- fashioned qualities the Royal Ballet used to display, without bothering too much about the supposed Russianness Makarova has spoken of so much (which doesn't, anyway, really make itself very apparent in most of the playing).

Marianella Nunez, who stepped in for Darcey Bussell in the opening-night finale, eventually got to do her scheduled performance of the full role, dancing attractively though without revealing full insight, especially in the vision scene – but playing opposite Inaki Urle-zaga's clumping, self-absorbed Désiré can't be much inspiration. The remaining Aurora, Roberta Marqueez, was luckier in being partnered by the lively, if not surpassingly romantic, Ethan Stiefel. They are both transatlantic guests, he from New York, she from Rio de Janeiro. Marqueez is tiny and very pretty, with a bright presentation best suited to the first act.

Considering that Makarova used to be famed in the Bluebird duet from this ballet's last act, I hoped for more from that potentially brilliant showpiece than we have been seeing: the first-night Cojocaru and Kobborg were fine, but since then, the varied casts have provided sound but not exciting dancing. The other fairy tale characters who entertain at the wedding are generally well done. On the other hand, the quartet of jewel fairies go briskly through their numbers with no real climax. Likewise the fairy godmothers who come (curiously without gifts) to bless the heroine's christening: their entries, especially the ensembles, lack the variety and grace of earlier Royal Ballet productions.

Things are not helped by the rush from one number to the next, apparently in a misguided attempt to finish the work in under three hours and avoid overtime; applause is killed and a flat atmosphere created.

The one character who has gained from Makarova's changes is Carabosse, whose malevolence comes over in big, bold gestures. The court chamberlain Cattalabutte, however, is turned into an absurdly mincing fop. Ridiculous, too, is a new, unneeded personage, a cupid who interrupts the drama and repeatedly upstages the main characters; he must go, and likewise the stupid, fidgety dance performed by two girls dressed as boys which now introduces the big wedding duet.

To 21 April (020-7304 4000)