Ben Heppner: An Overall Tenor of Triumph

A conquering hero with charm, Ben Heppner strode onto the stage at the Irvine Barclay Theatre Sunday afternoon clearly happy to be there and to share his vocal gifts with a virtually full house. The Canadian tenor, one of the Metropolitan Opera’s recent stalwarts in the Wagnerian wing, relishes musical challenges and has regularly met them, as witness his much-followed “Tristan” in Seattle last summer.

Recitals are a different genre, of course, and have brought down otherwise high-achieving singers. With a combination of good humor, naturalness and musical versatility, the tall tenor on this occasion made the form his own. At the end, with his audience standing and cheering, he might have taken a dozen encores (he chose to take only three).

But first he revealed his vocal and musical credentials, in “Adelaide” by Beethoven, in Liszt’s Three Sonnets From Petrarch, and in three impassioned but handsomely gauged lieder by Richard Strauss.

This first half showed Heppner’s range of expressiveness, a tone of heroic or honeyed sound as required, and interpretive astuteness. Best, it put on display an outgoing musical personality and that rare performer’s wish to please that the most admirable recitalists bring to their appearances.

After intermission, the tenor generously offered an anthology of arias: famous test-pieces from Mozart’s “Zauberflote” and Weber’s “Freischutz,” Walther’s Prize Song from “Die Meistersinger,” “Amor ti vieta” from “Fedora,” the Flower Song from “Carmen,” “Adieu donc” from Massenet’s “Herodiade” and “Come un bel di maggio” from “Andrea Chenier.” By this point, Heppner’s stamina and versatility could not surprise, but they certainly inspired awe: He sings everything with style and the proper measure of either passion or restraint. What he delivered most memorably: Mozart’s “Dies Bildnis,” Strauss’ “Morgen,” the Prize Song--despite some strain and tiring near the end--and the encores: “My House on the Top of a Hill,” “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” from Lehar’s “Land of Smiles” and “Danny Boy.”

The competent but often klutzy pianist of the afternoon was Thomas Muraco.