Music Reviews : Soprano Benita Valente in Recital at El Camino

Benita Valente is a paragon of lyric soprano virtue. For 30 years, while others beefed their voices up and pushed them out of shape in order to tackle dramatic repertory, Valente has steadfastly preserved and protected the resources nature actually gave her.

Saturday night at the South Bay Center for the Arts at El Camino College, a small, appreciative audience savored the fruits of the soprano’s lifelong avoidance of the “I’m gonna sing Butterfly or bust” syndrome. To a program of Mozart, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Brahms and Obradors, Valente brought shiny, youthful sound and complete understanding of the recitalist’s art (Valente made this solo appearance on short notice, when her announced recital-companion, mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos, reportedly suffered an ear-infection and could not travel to California).

Valente is there because the music is there. She never strives for loudness, only carrying power. Her effects are never broad; they come directly from within, and they never disturb the line and flow of the music.

Some of that music is no longer duck soup, as Valente’s hardly robust lower register becomes increasingly fragile and her still radiant top tends to lose focus and clarity when the tessitura sits high. The first problem sabotaged a saucy, idiomatic reading of Debussy’s “Mandoline” and the descending run at the end of Mozart’s “Un moto di gioia.” The second scuttled the final exclamation in Strauss’ “Standchen,” which wasn’t the joyous beam of light Valente used to make of it.

Cannily husbanding her capital, the soprano substituted reverent reflection for the strong affirmation of Strauss’ “Zweignung.” Both she and (especially) pianist Warren Jones executed a “Morgen” suited only to a much more intimate venue.

Valente lent glowing intensity to four of Mahler’s Ruckert lieder, and her refreshingly earthy, provocative delivery brought Brahms’ “Zigeunerlieder” and four Obradors songs to vivid life. “Con amores, la mi madre” concluded with one of those worth-the-price-of-admission sustained piano notes.