There is limited choice for La scala di seta, either on CD or DVD, so it is a shame that this live recording from the 2009 Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro is not more lovable. Rossini was only 20 when he wrote his one-act farsa comica but the quick invention of the score already heralds the mature composer. The plot is a stock comedy in which a young woman is trying to avoid an arranged marriage, with the twist that she has already secretly married her loved one, who pays her nightly visits by climbing a silken ladder.

The Pesaro production updates this fairly predictable comedy-by-numbers to a very modern, chic apartment. The floor plan is reflected in a giant mirror at curtain-up and we watch stagehands wheeling in trolleys bearing sofas, beds, bathroom equipment and, finally, the singers themselves – a contrived if amusing touch. Unfortunately, the reflections in the mirror make the stage picture look confusingly cluttered on DVD and the director, Damiano Michieletto, encourages too much comic mugging from the character roles.

The most appealing member of the cast is Olga Peretyatko as young Giulia, who is exceptionally attractive – is that why the director has her changing in and out of her gym gear onstage? – and sings with a lyric sheen, until her soprano gets fluttery at the very top. José Manuel Zapata’s tenor brings a Mediterranean warmth to the role of Dorvil, though a tearing sound disfigures some of his top notes; and bass Carlo Lepore justifies the inclusion of an interpolated aria for Blansac, the unwanted suitor. Anna Malavasi makes a bright-voiced Lucilla but the overacting of Daniele Zanfardino, playing Dormont as a doddery old man, and Paolo Bordogna’s Germano, here an immigrant servant from the Far East sporting a highly embarrassing wig, gets wearing very quickly. The authoritative presence of Claudio Scimone in the pit is a plus, ensuring a clean-cut Rossini style from the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento. The only serious competition – a EuroArts DVD from Schwetzingen dating from 1990 – preserves a pretty, period production and singing of higher quality.