Carreras polished, pleasant but routine

TAMPA -- Jose Carreras must believe that less is more. Not only was the tenor's recital Wednesday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on the skimpy side -- clocking in well under two hours, including intermission -- but he sang little or no opera. Instead, Carreras and pianist Lorenzo Bavaj offered a collection of Neopolitan art songs, Catalan ballads and other traditional tunes.

This can be enjoyable stuff, but a whole night of it begins to pale after a while, even in the hands of a great, if diminished, performer such as Carreras. One or two songs by Tosti fill out a recital of opera excerpts well, but four of them, as well as a lot of similar romantic fare, amount to way too much of a good thing.

The voice, of course, is not what it was in the 1970s, when it was invariably described as "silvery." It is thicker, darker and heavier but still remarkably expressive in the bottom and middle ranges. Carreras, at 55, husbands it carefully, and the performance had few high notes.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect was Carreras's ability to communicate the drama of Chanson de l'adieu and Segreto, both by Tosti, and Rendine's Vurria with a sublime combination of singing and acting. Grasping the side of the piano with one hand and gesturing with the other, he brought passion and conviction to the music without overdoing it. The nostalgic number Andaluza by Granados was surprisingly potent.

What a treat it must have been to experience his characterizations of the great Verdi and Puccini roles in his operatic prime. Since his miraculous recovery from leukemia in 1987, he has limited himself to one or two opera productions a year.

Bavaj was a supportive presence throughout, and he came to the fore nicely in the dramatic piano part of Addinsell's Un ombra.

As polished and pleasant as Carreras' performance was, it felt all too cut and dried, lacking spontaneity and any genuine sense of occasion. It didn't help that the playbill lacked texts and translations of the lyrics, leaving most listeners more or less in the dark as to what Carreras was trying to get across.

But celebrity wins out every time. People love Carreras because he's part of the Three Tenors, though the least famous. As a scene in Seinfeld put it, the trio is made up of "Pavarotti, Domingo and . . . you know . . . that other one."

The brevity and unfamiliarity of the program didn't seem to bother most of the audience, which responded with a standing ovation, bravos, whistles and bouquets brought to the stage, but with a top ticket of $150, it was not a full house.

Still, people clearly expected Carreras would give them some opera favorites as encores. But it was not to be, with the concert winding up with another Neopolitan song, Avucella, and With a Song in My Heart.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright