TV REVIEW : Carreras Launches His Own Show

His tenorial buddies Numero Uno (Pavarotti) and Numero Due (Domingo) already have done it--performed “ . . . and Friends” TV concert specials. But when Jose Carreras seizes the small screen tonight (at 6 and 10 on A&E; cable), with a stellar assortment of opera personalities at his side, he will be advancing a special cause: the International Leukemia Foundation.

A well-chronicled and dramatic survivor of the disease, the Spanish singer looks like Hollywood’s choice for the lead actor in such a melodrama. Carreras is especially telegenic--his handsome face, sensitive brow and poetic intensity go far in that department.

What’s more, the arias he chooses show him to be in wonderful voice: supple, rich-toned, cleanly articulated--better than in the celebrated “Three Tenors Concert” (aired with seeming regularity on PBS).

Only in the opening number, “La Mattinata,” does he lack focus and support. Otherwise, the duets with Agnes Baltsa and Katia Ricciarelli (“Tu qui Santuzza?” from “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Tonight” from “West Side Story,” respectively) are powerfully passionate. His colleagues, among them a commanding Ruggiero Raimondi, are variously impressive. However, Baltsa eclipses all with her poised vocalism, dead-center pitch and lyric ardor, while Ricciarelli often shapes phrases feebly and seems to lack a middle voice.

No one is helped much by Jacques Delacote, who leads a London student orchestra through fussy, non-rousing accompaniments.

But the worst part of this canned and perfunctory video treatment of a live benefit show--which even includes the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent--is its forced and lifeless interview clips, arbitrarily sequenced between the performances.

Just the smallest attempt at true documentary, with a backstage camera recording the action, comments and atmosphere, would have captured some of the real drama. It’s not every day that a supertenor battles with a deadly cancer, conquers it and goes on to greater career glory than before.