Glendale Opens 69th Season

It wasn’t the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, nor Zubin Mehta at the podium, nor the opera world’s three most famous tenors singing songs and mugging in a show of bonhomie.

But it was a good try at imitating a proven pops-concert formula. And Lalo Schifrin, opening the 69th season of the Glendale Symphony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, managed to rouse the spirits of his near-capacity audience in the process.

He titled his program “A Night in the Opera” and the first half, which featured young violinist Tamaki Kawakubo, wholly justified the eponym.

A mere slip of a thing, the 12-year-old played Sarasate’s “Carmen” Fantasy and followed with the Meditation from “Thais” as an encore. She is a dazzler, without question, a musician whose style, presence and authority owe no apologies to youth. She commands a fat tone and clean articulation, a few pitch and bowing lapses notwithstanding Sunday.

Schifrin and the orchestra accompanied her ably. They began the evening with Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture, sensitively marking the bel-canto melodies and causing a buzz of recognition from the audience at the entry of music long popularly claimed by “The Lone Ranger.”

But the conductor did not necessarily ease the way for the assembled trio of tenors: Dennis McNeil, Jose Medina and Eduardo Villa. His arrangements, while perfectly fine as gauzy, pointillistic film-score material, often fell short as vocal accompaniments.

Nevertheless McNeil sang with bright-toned ardor, Medina showed off a rather small but beautifully poised voice and Villa made the most of his attractive mid-range.

All three found the right spirit, taking great enjoyment from such songs as “Besame Mucho,” “Amapola” and “Mattinata.”