Sharing the bill with two archetypal Opera House ballets is a challenge for any choreographer who doesn’t speak the same language. So it’s right that Kim Brandstrup has gone his own way with his world premiere for the Royal Ballet, even if it makes for an odd fit.

Rushes, Fragments of a Lost Story is, as Brandstrup is the first to admit, a sketch of a ballet. He wants us to fill in the gaps that the intentional ambiguity of his contemporary writing sets up. The scenario is very loosely based on Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, but all you need to know is that it involves a trio of characters – one man and two women – caught up in a chain of unrequited love. Carlos Acosta is the man who travels from passion into obsession; Laura Morera is the fiery object of his desire, and Alina Cojocaru is the woman who would seek to comfort his troubled soul.

Brandstrup’s fondness for elliptical choreography is well served by their emotional turmoil, which plays out in long phrases that reveal inner suffering with an outward stretch. And although the dance tends to be repetitive, the cast is excellent, led by Acosta, who tips into violence most convincingly.

Morera smoulders and seduces, while Cojocaru moves in tenderly at the end to claim the man’s broken spirit. The set is grey, reminiscent of Soviet gloom. The dancers move into and out of a huge beaded curtain that functions like a veil over the action. But why the Greek chorus of office drones? Too many clues demand more lucid explanation.

The real find is Prokofiev’s gorgeous music, “arranged and elaborated” most effectively by Michael Berkeley (and handsomely played by the ROH Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth). It was composed in 1936 as the score for a film of The Queen of Spades that was never made. It too was fragmentary and Berkeley’s achievement is to have given new life to its fascinating undercurrents and surface shine.

Any triple bill with Serenade (1934) on it is blessed. Balanchine’s ecstatic Tchaikovsky ballet is suffused with pulchritude and this was a buoyant performance. Marianela Nuñez was lovely, as always, while Lauren Cuthbertson offered a stunning radiance of purpose in her dancing.

Homage to the Queen (2006) is a vibrant showcase for a quartet of choreographers and ballerinas representing the four elements. It’s based on the structure of Ashton’s original 1953 pièce d’occasion (made to celebrate the Coronation) and is framed by his lavish entrée and apotheosis. Devotion to the monarchy is his theme, so republicans beware. But the variety of classical dancing on offer is good fun.

Leanne Benjamin and Federico Bonelli are suitably feisty in David Bintley’s Earth; the wondrous Miyako Yoshida makes a welcome guest appearance to lead Michael Corder’s shimmering and elegant Water; and Sarah Lamb is demonic and sexy in Christopher Wheeldon’s agitated Fire. Only Alexandra Ansanelli, leading Ashton’s Air, fails to evoke the requisite grandeur. Malcolm Arnold’s score is rich in majesty and filled with colour. A pleasure to hear it again.

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