"Like a gifted but sometimes underachieving child, Boston Lyric Opera does its best work when presented with the toughest challenges. On Wednesday, the company premiered the third and final opera of its so-called ``Italian Season'' at the Shubert Theatre, Mozart's ``Cosi Fan Tutte,'' an opera that despite loads of gorgeous music is an orchid that needs careful cultivation to thrive.

So it's not surprising that this ``Cosi'' turned out to be the nearly unqualified success that eluded the company with Verdi's ``Rigoletto'' in the fall and Puccini's ``Tosca'' last month - both operas that, if not entirely foolproof, can survive in almost any weather.

It didn't bode well that the originally scheduled conductor, Charles Ansbacher (of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra) and the Lyric parted ways very late into the rehearsal period. But by halfway through the opera's overture it was clear that the musical performance was in good hands under conductor William Lumpkin, the company's sometime chorus master and associate conductor - and frequent leader of many fine Boston University Opera productions, including the recent ``Romeo and Juliet.'' At times, the woodwinds seemed hard-pressed to keep up with Mozart's demands of them. But overall the orchestra played with full-bodied zest that kept things moving in a straightforward way.

That's pretty much how the strong cast of young singers - all familiar from past Lyric productions - operated under the no-nonsense direction of David Kneuss. Head of the Metropolitan Opera stage direction staff and frequent arranger of Boston Symphony Orchestra opera-in-concert performances, Kneuss didn't always respond to Mozart's

elegant music with similar stage sophistication. (The sets, by Michael Yeargan by way of Virginia Opera, and the uncredited costumes were models of good, sensible taste). But unlike so many Lyric directors, he did nothing to obscure or confuse things with self-conscious would-be cleverness.

``Cosi,'' after all, can be confusing enough - for its characters even more so than for its audience. In late 18th century Naples, Don Alfonso (James Maddalena) bets his friends Ferrando (John Osborn) and Guglielmo (Keith Phares) he can prove their fiancees, sisters Fiordiligi (Jennifer Casey Cabot) and Dorabella (Jossie Perez), are as fickle as - according to him - all women. (The opera's title translates, roughly, as ``That's What All Women Do.'')

By disguising the young men as visiting Albanians (please don't ask), and with the help of the sisters' maid, Despina (Janna Baty), Alfonso does exactly that. Both couples end up wiser, if thoroughly humiliated. What happens after the curtain falls is anybody's guess, but it's not likely to be a happily ever after situation. This is comedy, yes, but with teeth.

One dilemma: The performances of baritone Maddalena and soprano Baty as the principal schemers - however opposite - were so strong that the evening seemed a bit out of balance plot-wise. Maddalena's dignified portrayal of an Age of Enlightenment cynic was the evening's model of subtlety, while Baty came close to stealing the show with her broad, generously delivered antics - a bit much, perhaps, but just try taking your eyes off of her.

Of the couples, mezzo Perez - most famous in these parts as the Lyric's ``Carmen on the Common'' in 2002 - made the strongest overall impression with her comfortable, flexible singing and some of the best comic facial expressions since Lucille Ball. Cabot, Osborne and Phares were all more than fine, but Perez exuded true, natural star quality."

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