Dracula is a rather apt production during this global COVID-19 momentum where there are apparently many stir-crazy people out for the blood of politicians. They can at least take solace that the confines, to which they must adhere, are not coffins.

Coffins, as you would imagine – copious, black, unadorned, and strewn across a vast stone-clad cloister awaiting their voracious occupants as the sun slowly rises – are a feature of one of the many visually dazzling moments of this West Australian Ballet production (co-produced with Queensland Ballet). At one point in this cloister, a scene with Dracula caught in a cone of down-light, is like a Vemeer painting in its composition, intensity, and impact.

Oscar Valdés as Jonathan Harker with Alexa Tuzil, Glenda Garcia Gomez and Claire Voss as Vampire Brides in Dracula (2020). Photograph © Bradbury Photography

Choreographer Krzysztof Pastor has woven this myth – which he sees as essentially a love story – into a composite of beauty in its set design, lighting, costumes and musical diversity (all of which he had a hand in.) He asks of his dancers a mix of styles based on classical, modern, ballet-style waltzes...