There is one excellent reason for everyone to see this, and that is Irina Kolesnikova…
Irina Kolesnikova is a touching and vulnerable Odette, her wonderfully pliant back and exquisite arms radiating longing and unfulfilled yearning. It is not so much a performance as a quasi-mystic experience, connecting into some deep and ancient sorrow which she is sharing with us. She is more womanly and human than many Russian Odettes and her transformation back into a Swan at the end of the first lakeside scene is sharply delineated.
Kolesnikova is completely in command of the steps; nothing seems to be difficult. As a grinning Odile she has a fabulously good time as if nothing could possibly be more fun than seducing a gullible prince. Even here, where many ballerinas exploit the chance to show off, her technique still seems in the service of the role rather than indulged in for its own sake.
Irina Kolesnikova supplies such poetry and ardour in her finely judged delivery of the role that it is definitely worth seeing for that alone.