For one semester, Princeton University’s Music 219, an opera performance class in the music department, put its small class through the paces of preparing operatic excerpts for public performance. The students and faculty selected the music to be prepared, and the class culminated last Saturday night in an evening of operatic selections accompanied by an orchestra. The focus of Music 219 this year was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with selections from almost all of Mozart’s operas. Linked by narration from director Edward Berkeley, a faculty member at The Juilliard School, the more than 20 duets, trios, and ensemble numbers performed Saturday night at Richardson Auditorium showed that singers of all types can rise to the challenge of Mozart’s operas. Several members of Music 219 have also clearly risen to the top as exceptional performers.

Music 219 included only ten students — five men and five women. The women were sopranos or high mezzo-sopranos (there are very few contralto roles in Mozart’s operas) and the five male singers performed tenor or baritone roles, often in love duets with the women. Andrew Ge, an additional bass singer, joined the concert in a sextet from Don Giovanni. The first voice heard in the performance set the stage for an evening of light and clean operatic entertainment. Tenor Jonathan Makepeace sang several roles drawing on humor while demonstrating a light and clear sound. As Ferrando from Cosí fan tutte, Mr. Makepeace was instantly comfortable in a scene transplanted from the 18th century to a contemporary Princeton coffee shop. Mr. Makepeace has an operatic background dating from childhood, and his solid experience on New York stages showed in his scenes from Cosí, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Apollo et Hyacinthus, Mozart’s youthful Latin opera.

Mr. Makepeace’s comrades in the opening Cosí scene were Kevin McElwee and Warren Bein. Mr. McElwee blended well with Mr. Makepeace, and fit well into a pair of quintets from the same opera. Mr. Bein was paternal as Cosí’s Don Alfonso, returning later in the concert with an aria from Don Giovanni which well suited his voice. Another standout performer from Saturday night was mezzo-soprano Saunghee Ko, who has been heard in a number of solo performances in her four years at Princeton. The roles of Dorabella in Cosí and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) sit on a bridge between soprano and mezzo-soprano, and Ms. Ko has a voice which sailed up and down the registers and tough passages Mozart wrote into these roles. Ms. Ko was vocally tailor-made for the “pants” roles presented from Figaro and La Clemenza di Tito, sufficiently breathless in Cherubino’s “Non, so più” and well-matched with soprano Kaamya Varagur in a duet from Clemenza.

An alum of England’s famed New College Choir, tenor Sebastian Cox also brought world-wide stage experience to Music 219, and it was reflected well in his selections from Cosí, Don Giovanni and Idomeneo, one of Mozart’s lesser-performed operas. In a quintet from Cosí, Mr. Cox sang as a bear-like protector to the two women, and also took the stage well in the heroic Idomeneo and a quartet from Mozart’s unfinished L’oca del Cairo (The Goose of Cairo).

Although only a freshman, soprano Catherine Sweeney has already established herself as a potential career singer. Ms. Sweeney was kept very busy in Saturday night’s concert — cast in nine of the selections performed. Throughout her roles in Cosí, Figaro and Don Giovanni, Ms. Sweeney floated her high notes, especially in duets with other female singers. Ms. Sweeney’s voice was all sparkle, and her future in Princeton University music certainly looks bright.

Rounding out the cast from Music 219 were Amber Lin, Melanie Berman, Kaamya Varagur, and Sergei Tugarinov. Ms. Lin was well-paired with Ms. Sweeney in a duet from Cosí, with both singers animated and articulating runs well. Ms. Lin also was well paired with Ms. Berman as two lead characters in Figaro, with Ms. Berman well bringing out a panicked quality in the character of Susanna. Ms. Varagur shone in the Figaro duet “Sull’aria” as Mr. Tugarinov presented an animated Basilio in Figaro and interacted well with the other singers in selections from Idomeneo.

Mr. Berkeley’s narration was difficult to hear at times, but even without narration, the audience could revel in the music. No matter how entertaining the evening was, one cannot ignore how difficult opera is and the challenge of performing this wide a range of music.

The orchestra compiled by Michael Pratt never missed a beat in accompanying the singers, with elegant wind solos adding to the melodic passages of the singers. University junior DG Kim showed his mettle in conducting the scenes from Figaro, keeping crisp control of the action onstage. Music 219 prepares vocalists and instrumentalists to perform operas or opera scenes; missing in the course description is how the course prepares students to find the best in themselves and rise to new challenges.