REVIEW - ROMEO & JULIET, MOSCOW CITY BALLET - LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE

WATCHING young lovers commit suicide on stage was perhaps not the most conventional way to mark Valentine's, but in my view Romeo and Juliet has all the ingredients for a fitting celebration of love.

Moscow City Ballet's version, at the Lighthouse in Poole, had romance, beauty and drama in droves.

It also had, of course, as often in real life, a disastrous, heart-wrenching and tear-spluttering ending.

This light, playful and particularly romantic performance by acclaimed director Victor Smirnov Golovanov, was a dramatic visual feast from beginning to end.

The ominous opening scene saw Lords Montague and Capulet locked in a vicious struggle as the portentous chorus of death held high the bodies of Tybalt, Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet.

A stark reminder of the tragedy that was about to unfold.

For the rest of Act 1, scenes took on a humorous and dream-like quality, with ethereal costumes and decadent set design.

A graceful and regal Juliet created playful scenes with her nurse, who added just the right amount of humour into the role, and the masked dance by the cheeky Montague boys was a particular highlight.

But Romeo, Oh Romeo - tall, muscular and ravishing, he certainly provided the glamour quotient and with just one toss of his long, dark hair, he had 50 per cent of the audience eating out of his hands. Or was that just me?

However, when watching a ballet I always find there's one performer who renders me incapable of watching anyone else.

This time, for me, that dancer was Tybalt. With every impressive step he took came a sharp jut of the chin, or flick of the hand, and at the risk of sounding ever so Craig Revel-Horton, dahling, his lines were just fabulous.

As the acts progressed, the sets became dark and forbidding as first Mercutio, and then Tybalt, fell into the arms of the bewitching death chorus.

The ballet certainly built up to its cacophonous conclusion, and the final scenes between Romeo & Juliet flipped from to giddy and glorious to intense and broody within the blink of an eye.

And as they both tragically met their makers, I suspect there were many more blinks of the eye.

As a final nod to the director's spectacular storytelling talent, the performance ended just as it began - with the addition of rapturous clapping from the packed theatre.

LAURA MCBRIDE