MUSIC REVIEW : Garrett Recital Reveals Her Versatility

Vocally versatile, musically astute and strikingly good-looking--choose your own order--Lesley Garrett is a youngish British soprano who brings good taste and abundant enthusiasm to the recital stage.

The stage she chose to be on for her West Coast debut Friday night was an odd one: that of the Henry Fonda Theatre, a converted movie house in Hollywood. The place is not pretty or atmospheric; its acoustical properties seem to work for theater, but are questionable for music.

Garrett’s apparent cold--she coughed discreetly throughout this overgenerous program--added no aural illusions to an otherwise pleasant occasion. The voice is attractive, but failed to become lush or distinctive in these circumstances.

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More disappointing were inconsistencies in the programming and the vocal technique. The range of styles--from Handel and Mozart through Massenet and Dvorak to Gershwin, Coward and Sondheim--is admirable, though not as startling as Garrett’s recording company seems to believe. And the singer seems thoroughly at home in all these styles.

But gaucheries of stage deportment, as in Garrett’s semaphoric and constant use of her arms in the operatic part of the program--she became more restrained and subtle in the pop half--can get in the way of simplicity and expressiveness. And inconsistent delivery of words, particularly in English, cheats the listener of full understanding, both textual and musical.

Nevertheless, some wonderful moments stood out, and were perhaps worth the visit to the construction-beleaguered Hollywood neighborhood. Among them: a beauteous and understated revival of Noel Coward’s perhaps most-touching song, “If Love Were All,” and a contagiously spontaneous performance of Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind.”

Garrett’s solid support and stylistic expert in all this repertory was pianist Phillip Thomas, who played everything with love and discretion.