Monte-Carlo is somewhere Melburnians would love to be at this chilly time of year, and on Thursday they basked in the glamour of the principality at the opening night of a short season of LAC, presented by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

LAC. Photos courtesy of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo

Swan Lake is the Hamlet of the ballet world, constantly revisited and reinterpreted in an infinite variety of settings. This production was created by the company’s choreographer and artistic director, Jean-Christophe Maillot, in 2011. It is on stage here at the Arts Centre at the invitation of The Australian Ballet, whose artistic director, David McAllister, describes it as ‘astonishing.’

The prelude to Maillot’s offering was a short black and white film that set up the central drama between his cast of principals: the Prince, the King and Queen, the girl who becomes the White Swan, Her Majesty the Night and her daughter, the Black Swan. It was a surreal and sinister play-within-the-play, suggesting long-buried, hazy events, and it establishes the eerie other-worldliness that permeates the ballet.

There was a great deal of story to tell, and throughout the three acts the Prince remained at the...