Music Reviews : Kiri Te Kanawa at Pasadena Civic

She’s still lovely to look at, delightful to hear. So much so that Kiri Te Kanawa no longer graces intime venues. With tout Los Angeles seemingly on the soprano’s high-priced trail, smart sponsors opted for a bigger hall, Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where she sang to a capacity crowd Saturday night.

But the move from Ambassador Auditorium, site of her local recital debut 10 years ago, has not caused Dame Kiri to sacrifice any of her vocalism. The New Zealander’s soprano boasts the easy amplitude to fill the space without belting and without resorting to an overly operatic program. And it makes a luscious sound no matter what the dynamic challenge.

Just as important, however, she never was one to capitalize on the perfectly pointed word or the artful joining of notes to poetry--those Lied specialties that flourish best in small chambers.

Te Kanawa used to be a reticent recitalist, a little unsure of her moves. As she made her way to center stage Saturday, swathed in swirling white silk, there was the aura of the celebrity--gracious but not self-serving.

That quality also characterized her singing, assisted ably by pianist Roger Vignoles, throughout. She may not be the most profound interpreter, but neither does she pose, or wax insincere. What carried her along was a vocal production that simply opened paths to radiance. An unhackneyed Liszt group, for instance, found Te Kanawa exerting no strain, no tension, and thus able to capture the sweepingly melancholy Romanticism of the music with utter naturalness.

Less successful were Ravel’s “Cinq melodies,” with which she began the program, blandly. No applause broke the sequence here, but three times the audience interrupted the Gavotte from Massenet’s “Manon.” This glittery offering, which introduced a three-aria group, does not exactly fit Te Kanawa’s repertory, yet it made a lively opening to the second half of her program.

Shrewdly, she always includes Richard Strauss and showed why, Saturday, by finding again the precisely sensual nature of his “Schlechtes Wetter” and other items. Here was gorgeous, irresistible singing, the voice winding around those ecstatic upward curves, the open tone splashed brilliantly.