For its 2013 bicentenary production of L’italiana in Algeri, Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival assembled a cast and conductor whose realisation of the piece would grace any CD library. One would have looked in vain 30 years ago for a coloratura bass as vocally adept and as theatrically gifted as Alex Esposito. Anna Goryachova is a superlative Isabella, Mario Cassi a suitably downtrodden Taddeo. Only Yijie Shi’s rather tight-voiced Lindoro might be said to compare unfavourably with some of the sweeter-voiced tenori di grazia of yesteryear.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a CD, so unless you are looking for two and a half hours of 1970s-themed, multicoloured, multimedia mayhem you would be advised to steer clear. Turning Mustafà into a drug-dealing, Viagra-popping oil sheikh is not the problem. It’s all the nonsense that’s going on around him that’s so puzzling. L’italiana in Algeri has always had its surreal side – the affrighting has always been part of the delighting – but it’s also a wonderfully crafted piece musically. Director Davide Livermore claims to recognise Rossini’s craft, yet there’s scant evidence of this in a staging which breaks the cardinal rule of playing comedy: never act up to the gags.

I don’t pretend to recognise all the referencing. To judge by the DVD jacket, there’s an Austin Powers theme going on, though the talk in the attendant interviews is all of Blake Edwards, creator of The Pink Panther. Playing alongside Livermore’s L’italiana in Algeri in Pesaro in 2013 was a revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1987 production of L’occasione fa il ladro. Now there was man who knew a thing or two about staging Rossini.