New York City Opera devotees will remember the triumph scored by Mark Adamo with his “Little Women” here in 2003. I did not see that performance but caught a splendid version in California two seasons earlier. The piece was extremely impressive: Mr. Adamo made the most of that attic filled with symbols bequeathed to him by Louisa May Alcott. The roles of the four sisters were well-developed, the music dramatic and involving.

Now, perhaps to demonstrate his versatility, Mr. Adamo has done a 180 and created “Lysistrata,” which made its City Opera premiere on Tuesday evening. Although the work has already been performed in Houston, the atmosphere on Lincoln Center Plaza befitted a world premiere.

As a comedy, Mr. Adamo’s “Lysistrata” is a bit of a one-trick pony. The plot’s basic premise makes little sense. The women of Athens and Sparta are frustrated because their men are always away at war and never at home to indulge in sexual relations. The solution to this problem? The women decide to withhold sex until their mates resolve to make love, not war. I don’t claim to be an expert on Aristophanes, but something must have gotten lost in translation. Of course, opera plots are notoriously befuddled. I would need at least 40 pages to describe the story of “Il Trovatore,” and even then, I don’t know if I could convince anyone of its lucidity.

But after hanging his hat on the slimmest of pegs, Mr. Adamo has fleshed out his comedy with the most vulgar of devices. Apparently his closest similarity to Mozart and Beethoven is his love of jokes about flatulence. Coupled with a running gag that makes sport of other people’s accents, which seemed only slightly offensive at first but dreadfully tiresome around its 15th iteration, this “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Parthenon” is little but a daisy chain of hollow harlequinades.

The score is quite engaging, however. The overture, very well played by the pit orchestra under the baton of George Manahan, jazzily evokes the early 1930s, complete with the prominent sound of the saxophone (sometimes rather inventively simulated by combining clarinet and bassoon). Everything moves well in this music; there is an undeniable bounce to it. Mr. Adamo places a bit too much emphasis on the temple blocks, but these contemporary composers do love their percussion instruments.

I most appreciated the music’s sense of propulsion. Whereas “Little Women” relied inordinately on recitative, “Lysistrata” features continuous music. This is not Wagnerian in style at all, but close in concept to the Gesamtkunstwerk idea of uninterrupted rhythmic flow.

This is an ensemble piece and the cast, by and large, performed quite well. The vocal plan for the female voice resembles that of “Little Women,” in which one character (Jo) does most of the work and the others are ready for their big numbers as needed. In “Lysistrata,” the part of the lioness went to the Lysia of Emily Pulley, who was suitably sensual and mostly on pitch.

Ms. Pulley’s higher voice was balanced by two very competent lower singers: Myrna Paris as Kleonike and the subterranean Victoria Livengood as Lampito, the queen bee of the Spartan women. Ms. Livengood’s resoundingly deep intonations dignified, at least somewhat, the vaguely Eastern European accent Mr. Adamo apparently finds so amusing.

At City Opera, one voice often towers above the rest, and this night it belonged to the lovely soprano of Jennifer Rivera as Myrrhine. Ms. Rivera delivered a sensational Rosina in the company’s most recent “Barber of Seville,” and she seems on her way to great things. Here she is rewarded with the prize song as she sings her paean to physical love. The men, relegated to props by the passionate women, were nonetheless well-represented by Chad Shelton as Nico and Stephen Kechulius as Leonidas.

The sets, by Derek McLane, functioned in a way that befits a smaller company. Relying on a revolving stage that worked really well in this piece, Mr. Adamo’s exciting cross-cutting of scenes allowed no time for stagehands. I was reminded that the inventor of that revolving device was Richard Wagner himself.

There was just one aspect of the backdrop that gave me pause. We all realize that Athens was not in ruins during ancient times, don’t we?

“Lysistrata” will be performed again on March 25 & 31 and April 2 & 5 at the New York State Theater (Lincoln Center, 212-870-5570).