Instead, I went chez Maxim with Roland Petit. In Tokyo, where the National Ballet has been playing Petit's ballet-bouffe La Chauve Souris. This is his version of Die Fledermaus, and it is a soufflé made by a superlative chef, light as air, deliciously flavoured with wit and shenanigans, and utterly irresistible. And irresistibly done by the New National Theatre Ballet.

The troupe takes its name from the spiffing 1997 complex which houses the theatre - handsome wooden interior, excellent sightlines, superb acoustic. Petit, the last great classical choreographer of the 20th century and still, thank heavens, hard at work, staged the ballet in Monte Carlo more than 20 years ago.