Of the three, I connected with one at Thursday's opening night - the music - and though that's the best you can hope for in some dramaturgically antiquated operas, The Rake's Progress so intertwines the elements that the Curtis package was reasonably satisfying but also quite frustrating.

In standard repertoire productions, if one doesn't work out another will be along soon - but not Stravinsky's neoclassic pastiche of Rossini and Mozart. The Curtis run at Prince Music Theater brings the local tally to just 15 performances, according to historian Frank Hamilton. The opera surfaces only infrequently in New York, though it's full of star-turn opportunities with its 18th-century Faustian tale of an Englishman who comes into money and runs amok with a demonic, soul-hunting servant.

Yet the piece is appropriate to a place like Curtis: Each succeeding generation of singers more capably handles the quirkier vocal lines. Stage director Emma Griffin, with an interesting conceit that appears to set the opera in the mental institution where it ends, focused every scene with a keen understanding of who is addressing whom in the high-style libretto, all with intriguing use of stylized period gestures. But budget constraints were painfully obvious: Her Brechtian concept only partly excused the make-do stagecraft.

As Tom Rakewell, Joshua Stewart displayed a lovely lyric tenor, especially amid the dreamy, distracted lyricism of his mad scene. Elsewhere, vocal lines and key dramatic situations were only approximated. Leading soprano Ashley Thouret, as his sweetheart, was captivating and projected a strong, attractive vocal identity, but only in the mezzo-ish part of her voice.

Of the leading roles, only Evan Hughes gave the part all it needed while avoiding the usual devil-in-disguise cliches. Much the same might be said about J'nai Bridges as Baba the Turk, who sang well but was buried under a costume that made her resemble Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.

From the first, I parted company with conductor Ari Pelto, whose brisk tempos gave a drive-by look at the score and were particularly unconvincing in the musically alluring but dramatically superfluous codas in a number of scenes. Often, singers lacked the time needed to make an emotional point or deliver a punch line. The Curtis Symphony Orchestra played well, but when they're only asked to spin notes, who cares?

The Rake's Progress

Music by Igor Stravinsky, libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. Directed by Emma Griffin, designed by Jo Winiarski, conducted by Ari Pelto with Bonnie Wagner, harpsichord.

The cast:

Ashley Thouret ...... Anne Trulove

Joshua Stewart .... Tom Rakewell

Evan Boyer ..................... Trulove

Evan Hughes ........ Nick Shadow

J'nai Bridges ....... Baba the Turk

Diego Silva ....................... Sellem

Performances at 7:30 p.m. today and 2:30 p.m. tomorrow at Prince Music Theater. 215-893-7902 or www.curtis.edu.