When Angel Corella first joined American Ballet Theater in 1995, his charms were impossible to deny: He was as ebullient as a puppy. His smile could melt an iceberg. And Mr. Corella, born in Madrid, could dash off pirouettes as easily as others breathe.


On Thursday night he performed with Ballet Theater for the final time, in “Swan Lake,” opposite Paloma Herrera. Their partnership has meaning: While they went on to dance with others — and in many instances, more successfully — their earliest performance together in a full-length ballet was “Don Quixote” in 1996. It sent the audience into near-hysterics; the screams still reverberate in my ears.


But over the years Mr. Corella changed, and “Swan Lake” shows off a more meditative, introspective side of his personality and dancing. He portrays Prince Siegfried, an aristocrat whose mother is anxious to see him married off, as if he knew there were something else out there for him but isn’t sure how to find it. In a sense his suffering is universal, and Mr. Corella uses subtle means to indicate his internal pressure: a fading smile, a subtle sideways glance or a lonely stroll through happy, dancing couples.


The duality between Mr. Corella and Siegfried — for each there is the possibility of a new beginning but, with that, an ending to mourn — was palpable in this farewell performance, which nevertheless was weighed down by a production that has increasingly lost any semblance of freshness. (Alexei Ratmansky, isn’t it time for a redo?)


Ms. Herrera, while tough and teasing as Odile, the black swan, is too much of a dancer and not enough of a bird as Odette, the white swan. There’s an over-rehearsed quality to her performance that limits her ability to transform and be transformed.


Melanie Hamrick and Hee Seo, dancing with Gennadi Saveliev’s Benno in the peasant pas de trois, were well matched, bringing their own brand of lovely reserve to crisp piqué turns and hops on point. Devon Teuscher, who performed the part of a lead swan in the first act and appeared in the Spanish Dance in the second, constantly drew the eye for her elegant arms and épaulement, which lends her upper body such ease that nearly everyone else onstage looks constricted at the throat.


As the sorcerer von Rothbart, who escorts Odile to the prince’s birthday ball and seduces the eligible princesses one by one, Jared Matthews was out of his element. With the right dancer, it’s a diabolical scene; in this version von Rothbart requires a pirate’s swagger, yet Mr. Matthews was merely playing dress-up. Sarah Lane, as the Spanish Princess, did a better job of sweeping him off his feet than he did hers.


Consistent principal men are becoming an endangered species at Ballet Theater. Next Saturday Ethan Stiefel, dancing in “Le Corsaire,” will also retire from the company. For me, there are only three active and able male principals remaining: Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg and Cory Stearns. The current roster of male soloists isn’t exactly overflowing with principal material.


As for Mr. Corella, the smile remains, but he has grown from a boy into a man. Now 36, he also directs the Barcelona Ballet, yet his youthful vivacity remains intact. During an emotional curtain call, in which dancers showered him with flowers, he dazzled the Met audience one last time with a flurry of multiple pirouettes. It was sweet, fitting and a touch of “Don Quixote” all over again. The crowd roared in appreciation. He laughed.