A DAY AT THE OPERA : 2,800 YOUNGSTERS ATTEND NEW YORK CITY TROUPE’S PRESENTATION

The four burgundy tiers of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa resounded with the animated voices of children.

More than 2,800 Orange County fourth-grade and special-education students were on hand Wednesday for a special introduction to the art of opera as presented by members of the New York City Opera, which is in the midst of a 12-day engagement at the Center.

Taking turns at introducing concepts and singing solo and various ensemble selections from popular operas were soprano Ruth Golden, mezzo-soprano Jane Bunnell, baritone Robert Brubaker and baritone Scott Reeve. Gerald Brown provided piano accompaniment.

In the middle of the paddle wheel steamboat set for Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” currently at the Center, the four singers appeared and reappeared in various colorful costumes, sat on a stage trunk or at a little cafe table, manipulated small props and acted out roles ranging from Rossini’s popular barber of Seville to Puccini’s wistful bohemians.

The hourlong presentation was the first educational program conducted by the New York company on the West Coast. It was sponsored as part of a “Stage One: An Arts Adventure for Children” program by a $32,000 grant provided jointly by the Los Angeles Times and its corporate parent, Times Mirror Co. (The grant also funded a similar educational program presented by the New York City Ballet during the company’s appearances at the Center last October.)

Once settled down, the 2,800 children fanned programs, bounced legs that couldn’t quite reach the floor on the edge of the plush chairs and grew increasingly attentive during the music.

They tittered when Reeve (as the go-between Figaro) playfully tickled the throat of Bunnell (Rosina) as she began a long, warbling trill.

They laughed out loud when Brubaker (as Candide) and Golden (as Cunegonde), the principals of Bernstein’s ironic comedy, madly embraced after discovering that they love each other.

They leaned forward to watch Candide, thrown out of the house by Cunegonde’s irate parents, sling a tied-up bundle of clothes over his shoulder, hit the road and go out into the audience to sing his sad farewell ballad, “It Must Be So.”

Bunnell had told them at the beginning that an opera is a lot like a play, with the performers wearing costumes and acting out a story.

“But instead of speaking our lines”--she said, then broke into song--”we sing them!”

The children heard each performer sing a scale that illustrated the difference in the four voice categories: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass.

They heard voices blend two at a time, first the women, then the men.

Accompanist Brown explained that in opera, several people can express themselves at the same time and the audience can still understand what they’re talking about.

As an example, the characters individually spoke their lines in the famous quartet in Act III of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”; then all four talked at the same time.

“You get the picture,” Brown said. “It’s a mess.

“But when they sing the lines together . . . “ and they began Verdi’s mellifluous blend of four contrasting emotions.

Unfortunately, hearing the singers occasionally proved a problem as they advanced and retreated from the front of the stage where floor microphones had been installed to amplify the speech portions of “Candide.”

As a result, the youngsters became increasingly restless.

But when asked to cheer Reeve in the Toreador Song from Bizet’s “Carmen,” they erupted with volleys of “Ole!”

Even the singers seem startled by the volcanic response.

“We usually present these demonstrations in smaller school auditoriums,” said a still-surprised Lian Farrer, assistant adminsitrative director for the company’s education department, backstage after the program. “That was quite a sound.”