MUSIC REVIEW : Montserrat Caballe Sings Perfunctory Recital at UCLA

Montserrat Caballe has been singing in public and singing beautifully--for 35 years.

In the opera house, she has nobly championed the art of bel canto . In the concert hall, she has brought special poignancy to the music of her native Spain.

At 55, the diva probably has earned the right to rest upon her laurels. One only wishes she hadn’t chosen to do so Wednesday night at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Under the unconventional auspices of the Spanish National Tourist Office, the Government of Extremadura and Iberia Airlines, she sang a lazy recital. No other adjective will do.

The program, which began at 8:10 and ended at 9:45, listed 16 relatively easy pieces. Caballe avoided any challenge that might explore extremes in range, dynamics or temperament. She frequently consulted the scores that rested conveniently on a nearby music stand. In some shaky instances, she seemed to be sight-reading. She mustered no encores.

The voice, what one heard of it, seemed to be in good shape. As always, the soprano floated sweet pianissimo tones wherever possible. The timbre remained pure, fresh and limpid, even if the scale was uneven. In modest moments of florid agitation, the technique seemed solid.

Still, everything tended toward the perfunctory. Even Miguel Zannetti’s stylish piano accompaniment proved of little help.

At the outset, Caballe’s breathing limitations compromised the integrity of long legato lines. Some of the bravura flights were reduced to mere approximations. The phrasing tended toward the gingerly. The same palette of pastel colors had to serve dissimilar works of Vivaldi, Donizetti, Mercadante, Pacini, Albeniz, Obradors and Turina.

The large audience--which had paid $30 for a good seat--got no outside help in divining what the diva was trying to convey. The skimpy program card (a festival of typographical errors) offered incomplete titles, no texts, no translations and no program notes. It didn’t even bother to list the composers’ first names.

This wasn’t a grand night for artistic integrity. It wasn’t even a grand night for singing.

Perhaps Caballe was conserving her energies for Wagner’s Isolde, a repertory excursion that she is about to venture at home. Perhaps she was suffering from one of her infamous indispositions. Perhaps she just wasn’t in the right mood Wednesday.

In any case, one hopes she will try a little harder next time. Her dauntlessly adoring fans deserve more. Her lofty reputation demands more.