The Bolshoi Ballet season at Covent Garden ends with The Pharaoh's Daughter, an evocation and tribute to Marius Petipa's first extravaganza, originally staged in Russia in 1861.

It has been concocted by Pierre Lacotte, tremendous expert and creator of several of these revivals of 19th-century dance monoliths. This drama of ancient Egyptian passions is adorable: filled with improbability, pretty tunes and a lion-hunt, and a scene beneath the waters of the Nile (cue for fourth dynasty joke about being in denial). The Bolshoi's artists romp grandly through it.

This afternoon the cast is headed by Maria Alexandrova and Dmitri Gudanov; tonight Svetlana Zakharova and Sergei Filin are in charge. This Bolshoi season has been - save for the terrible face-lifted Romeo - a joy.