There’s a tangible buzz in Brisbane right now at the arrival of the Bolshoi Ballet, one of the world’s great ballet companies, and certainly one of the most popular with the public. Having performed in Brisbane in 2013 as part of the QPAC International Series, the company has returned for a two-ballet season at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and tickets are flying out the door.

Igor Tsvirko and Margarita Shrayner in Spartacus. Photograph © Darren Thomas

Artistic Director Makhar Vaziev has chosen to present Yuri Grigorovich’s Spartacus and George Balanchine’s Jewels, created within a year of each other but two wildly different works that showcase the stylistic range of the company today.

The season had its gala opening last night with Spartacus. Choreographed in 1968, it is one of the Bolshoi’s signature works, a big, energetic ballet that tells its famous story in bold strokes with two diametrically opposed couples at its centre – the heroic Spartacus and his virtuous wife Phrygia, who are brutally treated by the arrogant Crassus and the crafty courtesan Aegina, who is smitten with Crassus. Surrounding them...