A pale bouquet

In 2000, when composer Jake Heggie enjoyed the big San Francisco premiere of his opera “Dead Man Walking,” many critics balked. The drama, they asserted, was admirable, but the flat, derivatively tonal music was not.

Heggie wrote decorative, meandering lines that safely borrowed from Strauss, Sondheim, Menotti and Bolcom. At the time, it seemed as if a powerful pod of Broadway composers had usurped our operatic waters. Heggie led the swim. He went on to work with gifted “crossover” singers such as Audra McDonald and to win more grand opportunities, including the Houston premiere this year of his opera “The End of the Affair.”

On Sunday at Thousand Oaks’ Countrywide Performing Arts Center, Heggie enjoyed the presentation of another new work, but sadly, it offered nothing to gainsay that earlier critique. Commissioned and performed by Camerata Pacifica, the song cycle “Winter Roses” -- which had its first performance the previous afternoon in Santa Barbara -- took as inspiration the life of mezzo Frederica von Stade’s father; he didn’t survive World War II and never got a chance to meet her.

Sung fluidly by Von Stade, whose rich voice remains in shape, the three-part work set to music poems by Von Stade, Charlene Baldridge, Emily Dickinson and even Raymond Carver. It showed character. One song, called “The Wren,” flaunted a birdlike flute and flighty triplets; another, called “Sleeping,” was similarly playful. But overall, the songs and their directionless interludes tried too hard to be engaging. Von Stade’s song “To My Dad,” which set phrases like “You’ll never know my fear, my hurt, my pain,” felt embarrassingly lightweight; it should have displayed deeper, more original music worth listening to without a text. Von Stade deserved as much.

Thankfully, Camerata Pacifica paid her an excellent if brief tribute with a performance of Chausson’s lyric “Chanson perpetuelle.” Here, muted strings undulated below the singer’s buoyant vowels and French cadences. It was a reminder of the time when Von Stade ruled the vocal world.

Earlier, the band, which features different artists throughout the year, played Mozart’s D-major Divertimento, K. 251; this reading furthered the case for the group’s continued success. Sunday’s configuration included local musicians Sarah Thornblade, violin, and Leslie Reed, oboe, as well as former New York Philharmonic cellist Alan Stepansky. All three gave the Mozart great vivacity.

But the great surprise of the program, which will be repeated next Tuesday at the Huntington Library in San Marino, was the eloquent work of Australian composer Carl Vine, whose “Miniature IV” preceded the Heggie. This short three-part piece melded the American analytic style of Elliot Carter with tonal influences from avant-garde jazz, French Impressionism and American Minimalism. Close string intervals introduced a witty flute solo that drove an improvisatory romp full of original harmonic direction. Here was a composer who deserved attention.

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Camerata Pacifica

Where: Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino

When: 8 p.m. next Tuesday

Price: $65

Contact: (800) 557-2224