A big personality is needed to fill the tenor’s shoes in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. Indeed, sometimes it has simply been a big tenor that fits the bill, as Luciano Pavarotti did on the occasions when he sang Gustavo in London – a part that suited not only his voice, but also his careless air of bonhomie.

That was the previous production of the opera at the Royal Opera House, when the story was set in Sweden under the rule of King Gustav III, as Verdi originally intended. The current staging, dating from 2005, adopts the American setting forced upon Verdi by the censors, but that does not make any difference to the crucial central role played by the tenor.

For this second revival the Royal Opera has found a winner. Ramón Vargas has a smaller voice than most singers of the role today, but it is probably closer to what Verdi himself might have expected. He never forces his tone, phrases with elegance, and sings with a heartfelt tenderness that makes Riccardo, the insouciant governor of Boston, a real charmer.

Vargas is the main reason for catching this revival. The soprano and baritone – Angela Marambio as Amelia and Dalibor Jenis as Renato (pictured above) – both have big voices and deploy them like weapons of mass destruction. There is not much subtlety: Marambio’s singing lacks suppleness and beauty; Jenis, though impressive at full throttle, is short on refinement. Anna Christy plays a properly boyish Oscar, though her soprano seems smaller than when she sang Donizetti’s Lucia up the road at ENO. Elena Manistina delivers the fortune teller Ulrica’s predictions with force and a Russian accent that unhelpfully adds to their obscurity.

A return to Mario Martone’s production does not enhance its charms: there is a lot of futile toying with symbolism before the evening reaches the spectacle of the closing ball, where first the audience and then partygoers are reflected in a hanging mirror. Much more interesting is the conducting of Maurizio Benini. Although he is slow off the mark, Benini colours every melody as only an Italian can and gets playing of compelling detail from the orchestra. At around the halfway point he lights the touch-paper and from there on the performance blazes convincingly. ★★★☆☆