Crowds packed the Republic Hall at the Mediterranean Conference Centre for Crystal Palace, a ballet with elements of opera and drama, which was held to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between Malta and Russia on 21 July.

Ballet in Malta is actually a Russian cultural import; the first ballet school was opened by Nathalie Poutiatine, a Russian princess and ballerina who fled her country during the Russian Civil War and who eventually settled in Malta with her Maltese husband.

The ballet, which was opened by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and Russian Ambassador Vladimir Malygin , featured ballet superstar Ivan Vasiliev and his wife and Bolshoi soloist Maria Vinogradova - who portrayed a couple forced to marry and spend their wedding night in an ice palace by the cruel Russian empress Anna Ioannovna - as well as Bolshoi prima ballerina Maria Allash and soprano Anna Aglatova.

The ballet is inspired a true story - the Empress had imposed this bizarre order on a prince who had "wronged" her by marrying an Italian woman and converting to her Catholic religion. His wife died shortly afterwards, and the prince was made a jester, forced to marry a maid and spend the night in a palace of ice in a harsh winter. The two survived - and outlived the empress - after bribing a guard with a pearl necklace for a sheepskin coat.

The music - appropriately enough, penned by a Maltese composer born in the former USSR, Alexey Shor - was provided by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Bolshoi conductor Pavel Klinichev. The world-renowned Moscow theatre was also well-represented behind the scenes, as choreography, sets and costumes were in the hands of Bolshoi veterans.

Malta was also represented by pupils of the Brigitte Gauci Borda School of Ballet and the Stagecoach Choir.

The event was organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture, and represented the first public performance of Shor's ballet: Armenia's Yerevan Opera Theatre has already confirmed its plans to stage a production of Crystal Palace next year.