Given she’s been off injured for a year, Sarah Lamb understandably took things carefully.

Although she had a small part in the season-opening Mayerling, Sleeping Beauty is Lamb’s first three-act biggie since the injury (she broke three metatarsal bones in her left foot in Paris), and her performance deserved every one of the flowers the Opera House arranged for her curtain call.

The American-born Lamb is a slender, slightly reserved dancer, and her interpretation of Princess Aurora is as a refined, shy young girl.

It works well and gives Ivan Putrov’s Prince, a naturally more ardent performer, something to act against. The way the pair play it, he brings out Lamb’s delicate Princess and she responds to his softly amorous manners.

Putrov has been rather over-shadowed of late with the arrival of the super talented Sergei Polunin, a fellow Ukrainian who’s pretty much cleaned up in the good-looking, floppy-haired, young talent stakes. It’s a shame, as Putrov is an able performer and fine actor, and it would be good to see more of him.

Polunin himself disappointed nobody in the Act III Florestan pas de trois, while Steven McRae was pin-perfect in the Bluebird duet with the mistress of precision Laura Morera as Princess Florine. Marianela Nunez corralled the action with her clearly mimed and graciously mannered Lilac Fairy.

The Sleeping Beauty is a big, old ballet with a fairy tale plot that’s easy to mock. It is, of course, both a majestic sweep of culture and a steely reminder of the importance of good connections — Princess Aurora would be stumped without the Lilac Fairy’s address book. Beauty is also the toughest of tests for a ballet company.

It requires dancers with both tungsten technique and gentle manners. Few can sustain this for its three-hour duration, let alone bring a British identity to this most international of ballets.
With the Royal’s current Beauty, a restaging of its famous 1946 production, we can be optimistic.
In rep until 24 November (020 7304 4000. www.roh.org.uk).