A weeklong run of Swan Lake at the American Ballet Theater ended with a blaze of first class dancing in major debuts and cast changes.

Nina Ananiashvili's Odette-Odile, rapturously supported by José Manuel Carreño's Prince Siegfried, threw the audience into delirium on Thursday night at the Metropolitan Opera House………………..

Kevin McKenzie's version of Swan Lake, grandly framed by Zack Brown's décor, is firmly directed but leaves room for interpretation. Ms. Ananiashvili took her performance up to a rare level of dynamic projection.

As a virtuoso, Ms. Ananiashvili would seem a more natural Odile (she seduced both the audience and Siegfried with diamond-sharp dazzle in Act III) than a mournful Odette. Yet from the moment she entered with a huge leap as a frightened and tender Odette, the stage came alive as it rarely has this season. Making use of her head and long arms in an image of sorrow and vulnerability, she plunged into arabesques or sustained them with a deeply arched tinge of desperation. Mr. Carreño's classical dancing has been more consistent in both technique and style but he pulled himself together in Act III for his solo and coda; he was always in character.