The final programme in what has largely been a triumphant season for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden was a long one. But then, this was a celebration of the company’s 75th birthday, and it was a long story that it set out to tell, with a revival of Ninette de Valois’s The Rake’s Progress (1935); a new production of Homage to the Queen, originally created by Frederick Ashton for the coronation in 1953 and reworked as a present for HM’s 80th birthday (she saw it on Thursday); and, in between, a Divertissements selection of pas de deux and solos drawn from each decade of the Royal Ballet’s history.

Apart from the artistic heritage of the ballets themselves — all of them native, made by British choreographers — what this mixed programme offered was a magnificent parade of outstanding dancers in stunning performances. On Monday’s opening night, it was one star after another, or in pairs, with reshufflings of roles and different combinations to vary the pleasures at Tuesday’s second showing. De Valois herself, the founder of both Royal Ballet companies and their school, would surely be proud of their recent achievements. Up on a cloud somewhere, Madam may be coupling her praise with practical observations about the future. For her, respecting tradition was the basis from which to look ahead.

De Valois’s The Rake’s Progress, made in the early Sadler’s Wells years, was emblematic of the British ballet she was forging. Based on Hogarth’s pictorial narrative, in Hogarthian designs by Rex Whistler, to a lively score by Gavin Gordon, and in her own characterful choreography, this was as native as you could get. Given all that has happened since, it has an old-fashioned flavour, but it is full of cameos. On suc- cessive nights, Johan Kobborg and Viacheslav Samodurov gave finely judged and compelling performances as the arrogant Rake plunging to madness, with Laura Morera and Belinda Hatley touching as the Betrayed Girl.

In the Divertissements, Samodurov and Martin Harvey danced the fierce, goose-step choreography of Satan’s solo from de Valois’s Job with impressive power, and Zenaida Yanowsky and Marianela Nuñez flitted grief-strickenly in a snippet from Ashton’s wartime Dante Sonata. The pas de deux from his 25th-anniversary ballet Birthday Offering was illuminated by the radiance and poise of Alexandra Ansanelli (Tuesday), immaculately partnered by Valeri Hristov; while first Miyako Yoshida, then Leanne Benjamin, soared ravishingly in the arms of the elegant Federico Bonelli (both nights) in the sublime duet from Rhapsody.

Kenneth MacMillan (much missed), the third great shaper of the company’s style, was rightly represented by the wonderful balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, in dazzling, sensitive performances by Carlos Acosta with Tamara Rojo and Kobborg with Alina Cojocaru, which brought the house down. Darcey Bussell was at her loveliest and most heart-rending, taking leave of ardent Roberto Bolle in the pas de deux from Winter Dreams (Monday). On a lighter note, Nuñez and Thiago Soares, then Mara Galeazzi with Edward Watson, brought wit and jazzy sleekness to the ragtime Bethena number from Elite Syncopations. Finally, in this section, jarring us into the new millennium, the wrigglings and grapplings of Wayne McGregor’s Qualia duet were negotiated heroically in their underwear by Benjamin and Watson (Monday) — audacious, in a way, but MacMillan was often thus and more so.

Homage to the Queen is a mixed blessing. Conceived by Ashton as a grand classical display to show off his star ballerinas, this new production aims — and succeeds — at that level, following the original scheme, four ballets in one, on the theme of the four elements, framed by courtly parades and processionals. Christopher Newton has re- created the surviving parts of Ashton’s mostly long-forgotten ballet — notably for the Queen of the Air and her entourage, with Bussell and David Makhateli suitably airy and regal in the opening cast. At Monica Mason’s commission, three of today’s Royal Ballet-born choreographers have reinterpreted the other sections. Earth, by David Bintley, is fluently classical in Ashtonian manner, as is Water, by Michael Corder (Cojocaru and Yoshida both captivating queens in the latter), while Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire has a demonic flavour, with a superbly athletic, explosive role as the spirit of Fire for the young and hugely talented Steven McRae.

But the ballet is hard to take in as an entity; it drags over 39 minutes. I intend no lèse majesté, but the apotheosis, with everyone kneeling to worship the royal coat of arms (questionable new designs by Peter Farmer), is naff. And Malcolm Arnold’s original score (albeit well played under Barry Wordsworth) is a drawback, delicately melodious in parts, but dull in others — or over the top. A man passing me on the way out said: “It’s like The Dam Busters.”