Hitting Comic High Notes

And you thought listening to commercial jingles was dull.

Voiceover actresJ. Ward got so bored singing them that she has begun performing arias around the country in her one-woman show “Stand Up Opera,” currently booked Upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse.

It started about four years ago, Ward recalled. She had a nightclub act, day work doing cartoon voices--she’s the current voice of “The Flintstone’s” Betty Rubble, among other roles--and those commercials. But the music was not challenging enough.

“I was complaining to my voice teachers, and they said, ‘Try this one,’ ” she said.

It was an aria. It was difficult. And Ward was hooked.

Opera is “dangerous singing,” she said. “It’s vocal bungee jumping. You open your mouth, and hope (the notes) come out. And what if they don’t? That’s when you hope you’re funny.”

That hasn’t happened yet to Ward.

“But there’s always a chance; that’s the attraction,” she said.

The singer describes her program as “user-friendly opera,” or “opera for the recession.” This is because tickets don’t cost the astronomical prices people usually expect for opera. She also points to the stand-up comedy part of the show--her explanations of what the operas are about, what went on behind the scenes, and stories of why certain composers wrote certain arias and what they thought of the divas who sang them.

The curtain rises on Ward and her accompanist, Michael Sushel, at 2:30 and 5 p.m. today and on Oct. 25, the final date. On Thursday through Saturday, the program starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20. Upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse is at 39 S. El Molino Ave.