Yearwood in a Low-Energy Bowl Debut

The fireworks stole the show at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night.

And why not? What better opportunity for unabashedly patriotic pyrotechnics, for the massed instrumental sounds of the nattily garbed Marine Corps Band and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra proclaiming the “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” than during the climax of the opening performance of the Bowl’s three-day Fourth of July “Fireworks Spectacular.”

It’s a good thing, too. Because the performance, which featured country singer Trisha Yearwood making her Bowl debut, was otherwise light on both substance and energy.

The surprisingly brief program allocated a bare minimum of time to the orchestra, which offered brisk, competent, another-day-at-the-office renderings of two perennials--Richard Rodgers’ suite from his score for “Victory at Sea” and Elmer Bernstein’s main title music for “The Magnificent Seven”--supplemented by the “world premiere” of a suite from the new musical “Ragtime” and the “West Coast premiere” of music from the film “Hercules.” Aside from the occasional cakewalk rhythms from “Ragtime,” however, there was nothing much in any of the works either to challenge the orchestra or to generate any special response from the overflow crowd.

Yearwood, wearing two blandly colored outfits that paid no acknowledgment to the celebratory aspects of the holiday, provided an attractive set of country tunes, including her first hit, “She’s in Love With the Boy,” and her 1994 crossover hit, “The Song Remembers When.” But in her second set, which included her versions of a medley of Gershwin tunes performed with the orchestra, Yearwood abandoned the storytelling qualities that make her country readings so appealing, opting instead for pop-style belting. Fortunately, the fireworks were yet to come.

* Trisha Yearwood and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, tonight at 7:30 at the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. Sold out, but televised live by KCOP-TV Channel 13. (213) 850-2000.