OPERA REVIEW : Lakes Shimmers, Meier Shines in Wagner Concert

In its modest 25-year span, San Diego Opera has hardly been a hotbed of Wagnerian enthusiasm. Thanks to the vision of founding director Walter Herbert, the company traversed the mighty “Ring” cycle in annual installments from 1974-77, but Herbert’s successors have rarely dipped into the Wagner canon.

Tuesday’s all-Wagner concert at the Civic Theatre, however, made some modest amends for this neglect, and, more important, served as the lure to bring the young American tenor Gary Lakes to San Diego for the first time.

If the concert’s first half seemed unduly slight--it was a potpourri of four short arias and three overtures--the compelling, post-intermission performance of the first act of “Die Walkure” vindicated the entire undertaking. Under Heinz Fricke’s authoritative baton, soloists and an expanded on-stage orchestra offered a sweeping, intense and stylistically sympathetic concert performance.

Soprano Johanna Meier, who graced the local opera stage in memorable performances in the 1970s, projected a Sieglinde of affecting beauty. Meier inflected the vocal line with gleaming yet limpid tone and uncommon sensitivity. Her joyous encounter of her lost brother, Siegmund, was the work’s emotional linchpin.

As Siegmund, Lakes warmed up appreciably from his tentative arias in the first half. Pursuing the familiar outlines of a part he has often sung, he brought requisite ardor to the role, although he still seemed stiff in comparison to Meier. The clarion strength of his voice, even sweeter on top than in other ranges, is clearly this aspiring heldentenor’s calling card.

John Macurdy, a last-minute replacement for German bass Artur Korn, projected a stern and aptly stentorian Hunding, negotiating his chiseled lines with assurance and conviction. In his only other appearance in the concert, he sailed through Daland’s humorous aria from the second act of “The Flying Dutchman” with consummate ease.

Clearly, Macurdy’s sure technique has preserved his sonorous chords over the decades. (He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1962, about the time Lakes’ voice was beginning to change.)

Unlike his colleagues, Lakes sang his first-half arias with score in hand. His subdued “Almachtiger Vater” from “Rienzi” and Lohengrin’s final “Mein lieber Schwan” suffered from overly deliberate phrasing.

Meier brought dramatic flare to “Dich, teure Halle” from “Tannhauser,” although the aria’s athletic declamation was taxing and brought out an undeniable wobble in her lovely instrument.

In a way, the opera orchestra was the evening’s surprise star. It was consistently responsive and flexible under Fricke’s dramatic direction, especially in the flashy Prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin,” in which the brass sections mustered well-focused brilliance and depth.

Fricke, music director of the Berlin State Opera, made his American debut with this concert and will return to San Diego Opera in 1992 for the season opening to conduct “Der Rosenkavalier.”