Promising Blevins Has Uneven Moments

Either Timothy Blevins was in poor voice or he was indisposed when he gave a recital in Marsee Auditorium at the South Bay Center for the Arts.

Whichever it was, Blevins, who left California some years ago to pursue higher education (at the Juilliard School) and a career on Broadway (in, among other showcases, “Miss Saigon” and “Show Boat”), did himself and his alma mater, El Camino College, proud.

On this festive occasion Friday night, a lot of his singing was erratic and technically uneven. More important, in the many challenges in four standard operatic arias and in an extended group of spirituals, Blevins showed again that expressive and dramatic poise overpowers weak mechanical details every time; his artistic promise is clear.

A group of three songs by Hugo Wolf showed mostly that the 32-year-old baritone was far from warmed up.

Then, in Iago’s Credo from “Otello,” the Toreador Song from “Carmen,” the Count’s aria from “Nozze di Figaro” and the Largo al Factotum from “Barbiere di Siviglia,” Blevins’ stage-worthiness, histrionic bent and true musicality shone through an undisciplined technique. Promise and talent are his to use, with the unquestioned intelligence he seems to possess.

Assisted with neatness, if sometimes unassertively, by pianist Donald Fredrickson, the personable singer made right choices in shortening his post-intermission Copland and Ives groups. Then, he erred in offering seven spirituals that proved downbeat and lugubrious in their sameness, mostly in minor keys and in very few moments joyful. Spirituals should lift, not depress.

Blevins’ first encore was Gershwin’s “I Got Plenty of Nuttin’.”