'The Rake's Progress' deserves, and got, laughs

The opera's musical components don't always fit easily. More seasoned ensembles than the Princeton Festival Orchestra (conducted by Richard Tang Yuk) have struggled harder with the score. Vocal lines aren't very vocal, but the singers made sense of them thanks to a strong sense of their characters. So even when tenor Lawrence Jones was vocally overtaxed by the title role, the dramatic inference he brought to everything he sang compensated for lack of vocal weight. Soprano Jodi Burns (Anne Trulove) was just the opposite - too much vocal weight to navigate details - though her appealing presence went a long way.

As the demonic Nick Shadow, Kevin Burdette had a commanding baritone juxtaposed against dramatic points effectively made with glances, nuances, and a restrained physical vocabulary. As Baba the Turk, Cindy Sadler almost made you forget she was a bearded lady, so much did she project matronly warmth behind extravagant egotism. You loved her from her first note - along with the rest of the opera.