MUSIC REVIEW : Domingo Sings in Final ‘Tosca’

In a cast change greeted rapturously by a surprised audience, Placido Domingo abandoned his conducting duties to sing Cavaradossi in the final Music Center Opera performance of “Tosca” Monday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Domingo took over the role from Neil Shicoff, who had left Los Angeles over the weekend to meet rehearsal obligations at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The duties in the pit were passed to Randall Behr, resident associate conductor of the Music Center Opera.

Domingo, who last assayed Cavaradossi locally with the Deutsche Oper of West Berlin in 1985, did not make the occasion a star turn. Some overanxious patrons did, however, burst into premature applause at the entrance of the Sacristan, mistaking Michael Gallup for the celebrated tenor.

The new hero offered a detailed, credible characterization--ardent, indulgent lover; fervent, righteous patriot; noble idealist facing death. He was rapt in attentiveness to his Tosca, Maria Ewing.

If his voice occasionally narrowed and tightened, and at first betrayed some unsteadiness, it more frequently blossomed in heroic splendor.

Behr conducted with sensitivity and power, generating electricity, enforcing tension and eliciting lyricism. If, occasionally, he seemed tied to tempos that might not have been of his own choosing, he often matched vocal phrasing with consideration and care, and rarely overwhelmed the singers.