David Bintley's re-telling in dance of the old French fairy tale is a masterpiece filled with splendid dancing and sumptuous sets and costumes.

In this age-old story, a lovely girl is given as a trophy wife to a grossly ugly beast, (the handsome and technically accomplished Iain Mackay) a threatening creature who is really a handsome prince trapped inside a spell.

The girl Belle, or Beauty, (Delia Matthews who grows on you as the evening progresses) eventually falls in love with the monster and through a redeeming kiss transforms the Beast's ugly spellbound self back to his original handsome shape (confirming the old maxim don't judge a book by its cover).

Finally, after some very beautiful partnering, the lovers go forward hand in hand into a new sunrise becoming at the same time the stuff of legend.

Clearly this is all the stuff of great ballet theatre, not to mention film, as Walt Disney Enterprises discovered with palpable glee years ago.

But Bintley's triumph is that he wipes away uneasy memories of jerky cartoon figures and fills the stage with some great dancing set amongst the lavish gold and ebony of the Beast's candle-lit magical palace, not to mention Beauty's dwelling, where cheeky, overbearing, over-sexed sisters, waspish grandmothers, eye-goggling guests, greedy characters with porker's heads and huge banquets fill the stage with humour and colour.

The cleverness here lies in the opening sequences, where the woodsman, who is a powerful magician based I imagine on the green man, an ancient forest deity (the excellent Jonathan Payn) prevents cruel huntsmen from killing a terrified fox.

In a chilling way, the Prince and his huntsmen are given the shape of the animals they are hellbent on murdering.

Thus Bintley establishes in a subtle way a moral code where evil is punished and good triumphs.

And for anyone interested in stage design, the evening is a richly satisfying experience second to none.

For years, we have bowed the knee to Philip Prowse as a genius among stage designers, here he has done the Birmingham Royal Ballet proud.

A great moment for me is the sequence where the Beast assembles beasts similar to himself bringing them together for a ball in Beauty's honour, where the master of ceremonies is an archly elegant Raven with an emerald-studded waistcoat (Mathias Dingman proving once again his worth to BRB).

The animals quiver with nerves and excitement as Beauty and her beast enter and then a huge waltz starts up (memorable music by Glen Buhr) and unholy partnerings begin, wolves with dogs, rats with crows, and, of course, that forbidden coupling, a human and a beast.

The remains of once-elegant clothes swirl around wildly until Beauty, horrified by the madness she sees around her, flees the company leaving the beast in rage and despair.

The company rise to Bintley's demands very well, and this scene will stay in your mind for a long time.

Like so much else in a great evening, it is, well, sheer pleasure. It runs until Saturday, October 4.