Arguably the first musical about the beauty of stalking, Passion demonstrates that, as he ages, Stephen Sondheim remains the perfect combination of world-weary cynic and romantically loopy teenager. The production at Fells Point Corner Theatre (FPCT) captures the composer's contradictory impulses perfectly. This was, quite frankly, a startlingly ambitious work for the FPCT to mount, with a demanding and extensive score, an exotic setting (mid-19th-century Italy), a large cast (17 performers), and numerous scenes, all of which had to be replicated within the confines of a single set. ccvp dumps On every count, director Bill Kamberger, his cast, and set designer Carol Oles succeed brilliantly. There won't be a more impressive or sophisticated piece of musical theater mounted in Baltimore this year for certain--or perhaps for years to come. The book, by longtime Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, is drawn from both the florid novel Fosca by I.U. Tarchetti and the film Passione d'Amore by writer/director Etorre Scola. It's a typical piece of 19th-century European romantic hooha, ciw dumps about an emotionally deranged older woman named Fosca (Amy Jo Shapiro) who becomes obsessed (to put it mildly) with a handsome young army captain, Giorgio (Jeff Rasmussen), who is himself deliriously in love with a married Milanese woman, Clara (Patricia Coleman). That Fosca is the cousin of Giorgio's commanding officer, Col. Ricci (Darren McDonnell), makes matters even more complicated, especially after Giorgio learns the pathetic story of Fosca's life to date, how she was wedded to and conned by a spurious Austrian count. Although there are a few times when ensemble singing goes flat, the individual vocal work is secure. Coleman's pure soprano, in particular, is well suited to Sondheim's music, while Shapiro's rounder, microsoft dumps darker tones give life to Fosca's torment. (It's obvious from Lapine's book that Fosca is meant to be downright ugly. And in an effort to make the attractive Shapiro haggish, someone went overboard with eye makeup, creating a racoonlike effect. It's the only truly off-kilter thing in the show.)