Stars of the Kirov Ballet.

Compared with last year's tour by Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet, which was dogged by charges of false advertising and copyright infringement, recent appearances by a contingent of top-ranked dancers from the Kirov Ballet proved quite smooth. What you saw was what you got, if you didn't compare the number of dancers who performed -- ten all told -- against the nineteen listed in the program.

Since the discrepancy involved some heralded newcomers, such as Anastasia Volochkova, Diana Vishneva, and Uliana Lopatkina, their absence proved especially disappointing. The intriguing presence, however, of the young and compelling ilia Kuznetzsov made up for this lack in some measure.

With the exception of one solo, the programs consisted solely of pas de deux. Farukh Ruzimatov, the group's semiofficial male headliner, had the distinction of performing the solo turn: Maurice Bejart's Adagio. Dark, lean, and intense, Ruzimatov cut through the "Adagietto" from Mahler's Fifth Symphony with remarkable finesse and sincerity. Mysteriously pointing a finger here and freezing in an acrobatic pose there, he made deeply musical what might merely have been vaguely melancholic. For a fully flourished program closer, Ruzimatov played the exotic and impassioned pirate to Yulia Makhalina's glamorous heroine captive in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire.

Tall, blond, and handsome, Kuznetzsov performed as an enraptured and rapturous prince in the so-called "White Swan" pas de deux from the first lakeside scene in Swan Lake (opposite an elegant Maya Dumckenko). He also danced a lushly romantic Albrecht in the Act II pas de deux of Giselle (opposite the inspired and inspiring Zhanna Ayupova).

Nicely schooled and energetic, Andrei Batalov, who is on the short, stocky side, danced with a vigor and finesse better suited to the hero of the "Diana and Actaeon" pas de deux than to the princely escort in The Nutcracker pas de deux. In both duets his partner was the long-limbed and lovely Irina Jelonkina, whose strength was not equal to her winning sweetness.

In the rarely seen Satanilo ("Venice Carnival") and the better-known Esmeralda pas de deux (usually performed as a pas de six), Margarita Kulik transcended her lack of youthfulness by filling out her dancing with spontaneous attentiveness to her music. Victor Baranov revealed a dignified if low-key stage personality; and Vladimir Kim overrode his technical limits with energy and theatrical eagerness.