MUSIC REVIEW : CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SEA WORLD SERIES A NICE DIVERSION

Although it’s unlikely that the overeducated killer whale, Shamu, will be forced into early retirement by competition from the San Diego Chamber Orchestra’s new pops series at Sea World, Saturday’s inaugural program proved a pleasing diversion.

Conductor Donald Barra’s opening flourish, “Wild, Wild West,” delivered a neatly packaged hybrid of orchestra, dance and vocal obbligatos.

Barra’s compact format--an hourlong concert sans intermission--and the commodious new facility, the Nautilus Bowl, were the evening’s most commendable aspects. The bowl’s gentle rake allowed clear sightlines, and its location away from the bay avoided that dampening chill that invades Hospitality Point once the sun goes down.

A crowd of about 1,000, largely families with children in tow, listened attentively as narrator Shannon Roberts talked them through the orchestral fare of Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Ferde Grofe. A spirited romp through “Turkey in the Straw,” featuring choreography by Melinda Styles’ Footloose Cloggers, and a vocal medley from the musical “Oklahoma” understandably needed no additional elucidation by Roberts’ Garrison Keillor-like baritone patter.

Augmented to about 50 players, the chamber orchestra gave a credible reading of Copland’s “Rodeo,” but the brass sounded on the scrappy side. With the San Diego Pops performing at Mission Bay and a pickup orchestra accompanying the visiting Joffrey Ballet downtown, Barra undoubtedly faced slim pickings to flesh out his group’s modest wind sections.

Thomson’s simple-textured suite from “The Plow That Broke the Plains” suited Barra’s ensemble to a T, but Grofe’s familiar “On the Trail,” from his “Grand Canyon Suite,” needed grander forces to carry off its lush, cloying idiom.

Unlike the San Diego Symphony Pops’ Hospitality Point facility, which has been striving for four seasons to come up with an adequate sound system, the Nautilus Bowl sports a sophisticated, high-tech--not to mention high-decibel--sound system. The whole setup bristled with state-of-the-art equipment, including a huge transparent screen above the stage on which the musical titles were projected.

Baritone Ed Hollingsworth and sopranos Teri Sinclair and Carolyn White added stylish verve to the “Oklahoma” medley, but the orchestra was scrambling to keep up with Barra’s heady tempos.

Under Barra’s direction, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra will play a different program every Saturday night through Aug. 30 at Sea World. Because of the Independence Day festivities, this week’s patriotic salute will be performed both Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.