The sexual psychology of Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran is not complicated. “Women should be banned,” proclaims the tyrant-hero at the start. “Women are born to conquer and to reign,” concludes his fiery eponymous lover at the finale. Take your pick. Neither would stand up in a court of law.

The journey towards that end is long, complicated and, as always with Rossini, saved by the most rewarding ensembles and glittering aural pyrotechnics ever detonated by the human voice. You may have to wait a good half-hour before the male lead appears. But the explosive, virtuosic showpiece (Alma Real) is heightened by that anticipation.

When the star is Juan Diego Florez, for whom Italian bel canto is life’s elixir, we are sure of a treat. This opera catapulted the Peruvian tenor to fame at the Pesaro Festival 12 years ago but only now does he bring it to Covent Garden, the first performance here since 1854, in a new Pesaro production.

His Matilde, Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, was if anything yet more outstanding. She floated, sparkled and spat her ferocious ornamented passages. Top notes shot out like flick-knives. You wouldn’t want to meet her coloratura on a dark night.

In a strong cast, Carlo Lepore and Marco Vinco stood out. Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova (Edoardo) suffered wayward intonation but her voice has thrilling burnished colours. The chorus found form after a ragged start, coaxed into precision by conductor Carlo Rizzi. The Royal Opera orchestra were similarly smudgy in the overture but soon settled into the crisp idiom. Special praise for the horn obbligato and fortepiano continuo.

Even Mario Martone’s lumpen period costume staging, with its fatally inflexible design, could not entirely detract. Sergio Tramonti’s set, a vast, clattering fixed double spiral staircase, provides little physical support of the kind singers need. Florez, despite astonishing fortissimos, often sounded thin or muted, curiously but beneficially delivering one aria in front of the half-closed curtain.

The action had nowhere to go but up. Or down. Some of it was forced panto style into the auditorium. Front row clients looked embarrassed as lusty chorus members grinned and sang into their faces. Such silliness is better avoided. With Rossini and a cast of this calibre, the thrills are in the music.

Until 11 November (020 7304 4000). On Radio 3, 22 November, 6pm.