By Clive Barnes

That dear old ballet, ĞLa Bayadereğ, just revived by American Ballet Theater in Natalia Makarova’s staging at the Metropolitan Opera House, is as strange and lovable as dusty yet classy Victorian oriental bric-a-brac.

With its fantastic story of love, murder, betrayal, drugs, ghosts and, finally, an earthquake improbably high on the Richter scale, this is ballet best appreciated by those who know little about the art or those who know a great deal. Only those with a little learning might dangerously regard it as simply old fashioned or old hat.

It has some of the most gorgeous dancing ever devised by the 19th century, and Petipa's radiant choreography, dating from 1877, and perhaps mildly battered in its authenticity, sustains even the cheerful tinkles of its Minkus score. Makarova’s sumptuous staging has survived in the repertory since 1980, partly through the magnificent casts it has been given.

There are three principal roles - faithless man and two women - and earlier this week I caught a couple of the current trios, one led by Nina Ananiashvili and Jose Manuel Carreno, both making their company debuts in the roles, and the other by Amanda McKerrow and, just returned from injury, Julio Bocca...

...With the other cast the balance switches and the pairing is dominated by the astonishing Ananiashvili, who dances like cream and champagne, with exquisite style yet an undertone of sensuous passion. Carreno, her partner, is equally a dancer of passion and power, with good phrasing and a seemingly instinctive sense of raw romanticism.