Rodrigues’ Voice Seeks a Message

There’s nothing quite like the voice of Brazil’s Virginia Rodrigues. Filled with dark, rich timbres, it ranges from a masculine-sounding countertenor to the lower limits of a powerful lyric soprano. It’s a voice that attracted the attention of legendary singer-composer Caetano Veloso (who was artistic director of Rodrigues’ first album), and a voice that has brought attention to Rodrigues as a potential world music diva.

In her Los Angeles debut on Wednesday at UCLA’s Royce Hall, however, it was a voice with an interpretive range that too rarely matched the sumptuousness of its sound. One of the problems was the minimalist quality of her accompaniment. Despite some first- rate playing, especially from guitarist and music director Luiz Brasil, the settings lacked the variety of colors and textures that wrap her recorded vocals. Equally bothersome, Rodrigues’ renderings remained within a narrow emotional realm, delivered with her gorgeous sound but too often failing to explore the remarkable potential for communication present within her voice.

She enhanced a relatively stark presentation with one or two instances in which she struck poses suggesting a vague African ritualism--a reflection, perhaps, of her expressed desire to connect with the African elements of Brazilian culture. And on a number of occasions--almost always the moments that drew the greatest response from the moderate-sized crowd--she performed some unexpectedly lithe dance movements. But Rodrigues’ unquestioned skills clearly need more seasoning and more diversity if she is to reach her full potential. At the moment, she is a stunning instrument without a comparably gripping musical message.