MUSIC REVIEW : Soprano Solos at Irvine Barclay : Dawn Upshaw’s performance was a first for the hall, and shows that it’s ideal for such events.

With its muted, dusky-rose interior, near-perfect sight lines and 756-patron capacity, the 2-month-old Irvine Barclay Theatre on the campus of UC Irvine would seem to be the ideal recital hall.

In fact, it is. Dawn Upshaw, the young American soprano now on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, gave the first solo recital in the hall on Thursday night, and proved so.

This was no debut for the 30-year-old singer from Illinois. Upshaw was first introduced to Los Angeles-area audiences in a recital at Ambassador Auditorium nearly three years ago; subsequently, she has sung with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Music Center.

Her accomplishments, then, could be no surprise, but they could delight, as they did, in an unhackneyed and satisfying program just a bit short on variety. Through it all--music by Purcell, Poulenc, Wolf, Rachmaninoff and Barber, with encores by Mozart and Ives--Upshaw was handsomely assisted by pianist Margo Garrett.

Upshaw was again a thorough and careful song interpreter, delineating moods, delivering textual nuances, indicating the thrust and direction of musical lines.

Still, a diva she ain’t. She does not sweep onto the stage like many of her operatic colleagues; her recital deportment and manner of bowing have nothing of artifice about them; haughty is not in her repertory.

But the voice is pristine, true, and truly pretty, if not yet distinctive, and used with intelligence. In her singing, words emerge clear and understandable; meaning follows. Upshaw the artist creates atmosphere and paints emotions.

Perhaps the most beauteous tone produced in this performance came in Mozart’s “Das Veilchen,” the first encore, and an object-lesson in the perfect blending of song and singer--genuine type-casting. Upshaw also excelled in projecting the moods--also mostly melancholy--of the six songs in Rachmaninoff’s Opus 38. She did the same for Poulenc’s subtle “Fiancailles pour rire” and six lieder of Hugo Wolf.

What proved far from ideal in this program was Upshaw’s choice to end with five of Samuel Barber’s wondrous “Hermit Songs.” Temperamentally, as well as vocally, these items, though given honest and sincere performances, did not suit the soprano at all, but instead revealed a shallowness--of tone and artistry--one would not have expected from hearing the earlier part of the evening.