St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's take on the plot introduces one or two slants and their staging, the sumptuous costumes, the effective sets, plus the performance of one character, invigorated me after watching several rather bland productions.

The SPBT can take credit for providing one of the most absorbing Sleeping Beauties to be seen in the British provinces of recent years and an evening of fully 3¼ hours included not a moment's tedium.

In this, the wicked fairy Carabosse has struck a deal that gives her the privilege of both hosting the christening and a first 18-years' custody of the baby who she makes possible for the barren and desperate King and Queen by her donation of magic fertility powder.

The royal couple, as we already knew from past experience, stage the christening themselves, omit Carabosse, and pay the ultimate price, as decreed by the Fairy of Goodness And Light (in other versions the Lila Fairy), that they shall live on alone, in rule, and duly die, while their daughter and the royal court sleep on for 100 years.

These were cruel twists and the SPBT production still has to evolve, maybe, to where the King and Queen complete what is already a more active and dramatic role than in more sleepy productions.

Undeveloped emotionally is the strangely delayed moment when they recognise the coming to pass of Carabosse's warning that Aurora shall prick herself on a rose stem at her coming-of-age party. So too is their downplayed acceptance that they have therefore spoken to Aurora for the last time.

Among the things that work well for me in this production is the staging of Aurora's awakening. It comes slightly after the musical announcement of the kiss, by the gong in the orchestra.

This eliminates the anomaly when, one can only presume, Marius Petipa asked Tchaikowsky to compose an accompaniment to Aurora's sensing Prince Florimund's lips and, in response, leaping out of her huge slumber into instantaneous dancing action - without a trace of stiffness or even a need to stretch. Let alone take a shower.

The staging behind a gauze, of Carabosse with her two trolls in her shadowy lair with its cauldron, is a recurring atmospheric highlight during the evening and the idea of Florimund neutralising the trolls' spears and entering Carabosse's personal domain to defeat and dismiss her, with the aid of the good fairy's golden rose, adds continuity and another new point of interest.

The use of the stage apron focuses us on the interaction and humour during the progress of guests, suitors and their pages to the coming of age celebrations, and on the forbidden-roses birthday cake, brought by the then "celebrity cook" of the age and his charming kitchen girls.

What of the dancers? The SPBT quality is strong throughout. The dances of the five Gemstone Fairies, the Fairy Tale Characters in the last divertissement, and the corps of 16 in the forest as the woodland subjects of the good fairy demonstrated excellent depth.

The hooped flower garlands, the pink and gold, the Louis XIV outlines and the Palace backdrop is the striking trademark Waltz of the SPBT's Sleeping Beauty.

And the familiar was shot through with unexpected cameos by Dimitry Shevtsov as the jester – in court uniform, then hunting – and later as Puss In Boots. A logical idea to take advantage, since, of course, Shevtsov is already distinctively memorable as the jester in Swan Lake.

New principal ballerina Marina Vezhnovets, as the Fairy of Goodness And Light was sunny without being warm (she had a sensuous costume change for her woodland role) but she is taller than the other girls, with legs reminiscent in length of Darcey Bussell.

The prince in the Nutcracker over Christmas was again that in Beauty: Dmitry Lysenko. He is shorter than the other leading boys and more suited physically to partner Anna Podlesnaya as Clara and Aurora.

Their partnership is new to us this year and in Irina Kolesnikova's growing absences as No 1, if Podlesnaya remains No 2, and Lysenko with her, one wonders how much prince dancing is left for Dmitry Akulinin, who partners Kolesnikova in the SPBT 's three DVDs.

Podlesnaya, inevitably, looked younger than her stage mother, Anastasiya Khabarova as the Queen, but her dancing seemed flawless, as did that of the other 38-year-old veteran, soloist Lilya Akhmetshina among the Gemstone Fairies and as the hen Blue Bird alongside the arrestingly beautiful 18-year-old Aleksandr Yakovlev.

There was not the remotest hint of wavering in the revolving balances of Podlesnaya in the Rose Adagio, and her pas de deux variations were models of smooth and effortless accomplishment and maturity.

She does, however, need to evoke some emotional chemistry with Lysenko and ultimately, despite their displays in and after the final duet, it was not her performance, nor his, that lifted this SPBT production and performance above the ordinary.

I should add that it was not that of the orchestra, either. Although they had recovered from their Boxing Day afternoon aberrations, they lacked the fire required to make notable their Sleeping Beauty role. Even so, praise is required for the solo cellist in the "vision" pas de deux, and the woodwinds and horns for their energy, wit and colour throughout.

No, we arrive again at Dymchik Saykeev. Here is the true star of this company. Having days earlier added Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker to his reasons for acclaim at Brighton, their chief character dancer revisited his Carabosse. He generated a big stage presence with an expanse and nuance of movement and gesture that dominated the production to a proper extent.

The King and Queen were not appropriately tremulous in his presence – room for improvement here – and the class and reach in versatility of this 39-year-old artiste, whose Tibetan name means Fortunate, meant that when his part was complete he had time to kit up and become the Wolf in pursuit of Red Riding Hood.

That meant he took the final curtain calls as the dastardly beast, under a mask, and was denied his moment of due salute as Carabosse.

The SPBT are trading still on Kolesnikova, their "prima ballerina absentia", and Saykeev is still hidden under a bushel. Hanging promotion on a star girl seems to die hard but be illogical when it is their main character dancer who is consistently delivering the most potent entertainment.

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