Artiste: Jonathan Peter Kenny

A Rossini comedy should sparkle, but this new production, starting its tour from Hackney, is decidedly lacking bubbles.

A fine cast breathes life into the story of the captured Ottoman Sultan Bajazet and his Mongol conqueror.

It sizzles with energy, fizzes with musical delight and rejoices in an understated sense of fun. Conway gives the work’s incongruities free rein and defies the audience not to chuckle.