Cinderella’s back, in the form of Rossini’s “Cenerentola.” The Metropolitan Opera revived its 1997 production of the work on Saturday night. Of course, many composers have taken to Cinderella: Massenet, in “Cendrillon”; Richard Rodgers, in his musical with Oscar Hammerstein. City Opera staged that musical last season – and, though relatively unknown, it has lots of good music in it.

In the title role for the Rossini opera was the famed Russian mezzo Olga Borodina. She is known for her French singing (Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Bizet), her Verdi singing (you’ll never hear a more formidable Amneris, for example), and her Russian singing. But she is a fine and eager Rossinian, as those who heard her in “L’Italiana in Algeri” at the Met last season know. The voice could not be less Italianate – but she steers that rich and regal instrument nimbly through Rossini’s many notes. And she has the right spirit of fun.

On Saturday night, she had the spirit of the trouper, too. Before the curtain rose, Met general manager Joe Volpe took to the stage to say that La Borodina was suffering from an infection, but agreed to go on anyway – she asked for our indulgence.

In such circumstances, one question is always pertinent: Is the suffering singer being game and helpful by agreeing to go on? Or is she doing a disservice to herself, the audience, and the understudy who might take her place and sing freshly?

On this particular night, Ms. Borodina was right to go on – she sounded husky, and in the early going of the opera, you wondered whether she would make it. Also whether she was risking harm to her voice. But she gained strength and assurance as the evening wore on, and was essentially her sensational self. Many of us have spent years toting up, and extolling, the virtues of Olga Borodina, and one of them is surely her versatility. I sometimes think I hear Marfa – from Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina” – when she is singing Rossini. But, boy, can Marfa sing him!

The British tenor Barry Banks outdid himself in the role of Don Ramiro, the prince. We had seen Mr. Banks earlier this season at City Opera, as the Italian Tenor in Strauss’s “Capriccio.” That is a comic role, and he absolutely slew it. He slew this one, too. He is sweet-voiced, clean, adept – a real bel canto tenor. His voice seemed mis matched with Ms. Borodina’s Rolls-Royce of an instrument, but somehow the combination worked. Not least of Mr. Banks’s contributions was a string of ringing, spot-on high Cs. (Ramiro’s big aria is in C major.)

Returning from the 1997 run of “Cenerentola” was the Italian bassbaritone Simone Alaimo, as Don Magnifico, the stepfather of Cinderella, natural father to those wicked – but, really, more pathetic – stepsisters. He sang easily and admirably. He also played an excellent buffoon, in part because he knows that Don Magnifico doesn’t conceive of himself as a buffoon. Particularly to be appreciated was Mr. Alaimo’s diction, super-crisp: This is especially important when Rossini gets pattering. Don Magnifico has much good music to sing, including an aria that resembles Figaro’s famous “Largo al factotum” in “The Barber of Seville.”

The Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov took the role of Alidoro, guardian angel to Cinderella. (He is the “fairy godmother” of this opera.) The voice was elegant, the portrayal warming. (Mr. Abdrazakov, incidentally, is the husband of Ms. Borodina.) And Simone Alberghini – like Mr. Alaimo, an Italian bass-baritone – made his Met debut as Dandini, the prince’s valet, who spends most of the opera disguised as the prince himself. Mr. Alberghini was generally adequate, and sometimes better than that.

Those stepsisters? They were the picture of bitchiness, and of campy fun – one of them used the kind of cigarette holder not seen since FDR. The soprano Rachelle Durkin was Clorinda, and her singing was bright, forward, and reliable. The mezzo-soprano Patricia Risley was Tisbe, and she was smooth, a little smoky – and also reliable. The antics of these two women continued as they took their bows, and those antics were charming.

Making his Met debut in the pit was Antonello Allemandi, a conductor from Milan. He has had wide experience in Europe, mainly leading Italian opera. The overture to “La Cenerentola” was quite worrisome: weak and not together. Sometimes, the Met orchestra sounds second-rate without music director James Levine. This raises the question, “Will they play for a guest? Do they really try?” Mr. Allemandi seemed to be doing his part: He was zestful and emphatic – but the orchestra was sluggish and ragged. With these qualities, Rossini simply fails. And through much of Act I, a sloppiness continued, with singers divorced from the pit, and from one another, and so on. But Mr. Allemandi persevered – never losing his enthusiasm – and everyone else got with it (more or less). Just as an ailing Ms. Borodina improved, the performance around her improved.

In “La Cenerentola,” Rossini throws quite a few ensembles at you – including a crafty and winsome quintet. That’s nothing, though, compared with the quattordicimino in “Il Viaggio a Reims” – recently staged by City Opera. That is a piece for 14. In any case, if you don’t have precision – unity – in Rossini, you got nothing.

Cesare Lievi’s production of “La Cenerentola” does the job, with touches of whimsy. And this is an opera that makes you feel good. In fact, its full name is “Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant.” Hurrah.

“La Cenerentola” will be performed on October 13, 17, 20, 24 & 28 (Lincoln Center, 212-362-6000).