Diva Hits a High Note With Opera--and Comedy

She’s been the voice of Betty Rubble on “The Flintstones” and hundreds of other goofy cartoon characters. Now, four-octave soprano B.J. Ward is having an animated good time with opera.

Ward’s live, one-woman show, “Stand-Up Opera,” combines serious operatic renditions with a comedy routine that includes punch lines, pratfalls and an updated spin on the classics.

The diva asserts, for instance, that the wicked and pushy Queen of the Night in “The Magic Flute” has a very bad case of PMS--Post Mozart Syndrome.

She also notes that the nefarious, promiscuous and pretentious plots of many operas easily could have been written by Danielle Steele.

“This is opera at its funniest,” says stage maven Carol Channing.

Tony award winner George Hearn of “Sunset Boulevard” called her “a beautiful singer, a hell of an actress and an irreverent stand-up comic.”

Actor Roy Scheider added that Ward’s “hilarious approach to opera cannot conceal the reverent beauty of her voice.”

Ward’s background is eclectic, just like her voice. She’s done improvisational comedy with Phil Hartmann of “Saturday Night Live” and starred off-Broadway in “The Fantasticks.”

She’s sung backup in Las Vegas and recorded in Europe in styles ranging from cabaret to country.

“I liked so many different kinds of music, it’s difficult to pinpoint me,” Ward says. “I’d throw in an aria at the end of my nightclub act. I sang opera when I was 14--coloratura. I didn’t know what I was doing then, really, all I knew was that I had a real high voice.”

She has collaborated with composers Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine, Barry Manilow and Jerry Herman, and voiced everybody from little boys to wicked witches in radio and television commercials.

Ward has also appeared in TV’s “Dallas,” “Civil Wars,” “Matlock” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Working Girl” and “Murder She Wrote.”

Having grown weary of the same-old, same-old, Ward returned to opera in 1990, studying with baritone Lee Sweetland and jazz singer Sally Sweetland.

“After about eight months, my teachers said, ‘Share it with your friends.’ But this was just too big, too scary,” Ward said.

Actually it was her husband’s idea that they cook some omelets, invite a dozen friends and call the event “Opera and Omelets.”

“People seemed to like it and I just kind of fooled with it. Then it just kind of took form and finally my husband got tired of making omelets,” she said.

Ward took the show to a nightclub, but didn’t sing in the smoky, boozy haze of late night. Instead, she performed in the early evening and had the place cook up omelets. The gig lasted nearly a year.

The fortysomething Ward has two recordings to her credit: “The Queen of the Night” from 1994 and the latest, “Stand-Up Opera,” recorded at one of her 1995 shows.

“I’ve always loved opera,” Ward said. “Six years later, I’m completely surprised at the turn this took. I had no idea I would go in this direction.”

“Stand-Up Opera” is touring the country and is booked up until 1997.

For a petite woman, Ward has a big voice. At Pepperdine University’s 1,600-seat Smothers Theatre in Malibu, only Ward’s comedy monologues were miked.

“Opera is theater. There’s a lot of passion, pathos. I don’t come at it as an opera singer,” Ward said. “When you’re successful at it, your audience feels what it is that they’re supposed to feel, even if they don’t understand the language.”

It was as a teenager who didn’t speak Italian that Ward saw her first opera, “La Rondine” by Puccini. Licia Albanese starred. Ward was in tears through most of the performance.

Today, Albanese is a Ward fan.

When the two divas met, it was after a “Stand-Up Opera” show in which Ward falls flat on her back after her opening number, the challenging “Sempre libera” from Verdi’s classic “La Traviata.”

“I always fall down after the first number--I want to keep my audience awake,” Ward said. “That way, they’re relieved that it’s not going to be so serious. There needs to be some jokes to keep people entertained and surprised. Of course, then, they feel they got their money’s worth.”

Ward was afraid of what opera purist Albanese would think.

“She came rushing backstage and kissed me and hugged me, and her first comment was, ‘Every time I sang that . . . song I wanted to fall down.’ ”

Ward said she doesn’t see herself at all like Victor Borge.

“He doesn’t really play the songs all the way through; he’s always interrupting,” she said. “Although he’s a really funny clown, amazingly funny.”

And she doesn’t compare herself to comedian Anna Russell, who spoofs opera.

“I really love singing and love the human voice,” Ward said.

“It has become a total way of life, singing. The more I work on certain registers of my voice, the more I see just how far I can go. I’m still enjoying the whole process. I’ll keep doing it until I have to stop having fun and the audiences stop having fun.”