MUSIC REVIEW : ROBERTA PETERS AT EL CAMINO

Roberta Peters is celebrating her 36th season at the Metropolitan Opera, a record for a leading female singer at that institution.

But, singing as she did Wednesday night in a recital in Marsee Auditorium at El Camino College, Peters might well go on for another 36 seasons. She is still pert and stagewise and the adroit mistress of a voice that shows only a few minor traces of wear.

In fact, the voice was in such dependably serviceable condition that the singer could risk a program that was virtually a compendium of coloratura showpieces without ever unduly taxing the voice or putting a strain on her astonishing powers of endurance.

Another singer might well have been content to let Mozart’s “Voi avete un cor fidele” exhibit her credentials.

Yet from there Peters went on in quick succession to the coloratura peaks of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” “Rigoletto,” “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Don Pasquale,” and “Linda di Chamounix,” interspersed with four florid songs of Richard Strauss, and polished things off with credible soubrettish versions of excerpts from Viennese operetta, plus three encores that included another aria, “O mio babbino caro” from “Gianni Schicchi.”

This is not to say that every tone was perfectly pear-shaped or that an occasional ragged edge was never audible. But it does mean that the Peters vocal mechanism is so well oiled that it can operate satisfactorily on automatic pilot, leaving the singer free to exert all her wiles on matters of style and charm and zest. She also knows more than a thing or two about being an entertainer in approved prima-donna style. A standing ovation at the end was well deserved.

The piano accompaniments of Marshall Williamson enjoyed a sprightly life of their own while lending the singer every possible aid and support.