Iglesias Puts Romance Into Sex of Pop Music

Julio Iglesias’ niche in pop music’s sexual bazaar is a refined little spot full of old world charm, where the blatancy of blaring Boltonesque belters and torso-baring exhibitionists can’t intrude. Iglesias’ place is indeed a church of high romance, a grotto for sweet sighs and a courtly approach to the old let’s-get-it-on.

On Thursday, Iglesias opened a four-show engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa that runs through Sunday. He summed up the point of his 95-minute performance when he told the audience, “If you go home and you don’t make love . . . this is not mission accomplished for us.” He summed up the romantic decorum of his methods when he announced, “We make love on the stage with our brains.”

Vocally, Iglesias, 54, wasn’t anything special; he didn’t dazzle with a daring range or a distinctive timbre. But he sang as if he really believes in romance, investing his even mixture of songs in Spanish and English with a combination of sincere ardor and tenderness.

Old world though he might be, Iglesias went in for a fair amount of Vegas-style stage flash in the lighting and the band arrangements on up-tempo numbers in which the guitar chords, synthesizer flourishes and saxophone wails were predictably fanfare-laden.

While songs from his current album, “Tango,” featured dancers who gave form to a brand of sexiness wrapped in stylized elegance, Iglesias also shared the stage with a lithesome young dancing beauty.

Iglesias’ long-standing worldwide appeal clearly lies in his ability to swathe that naked and essential erotic impulse in the courtly trappings of romance. His self-deprecating humor undercut any titanic pretentiousness and made him a comfortable host, courtly, yes, but also fun.

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* Julio Iglesias performs tonight at 8 and Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $15 to $70. (714) 740-2000.