PCMS presents Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone, and Craig Perry, piano

Lost in translation

The program mixed Italian airs by Bellini and Rossini with a dozen familiar American standards. Pisaroni deserves commendation for treating the music of George Gershwin and Cole Porter with respect. He threw himself into the delivery of these songs, and his instincts as an opera actor shone through, even on the Perelman Theatre’s bare stage.

Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me” showed off a melting legato line and better-than-expected English diction. “I now know how an American singer must feel singing Tosti,” he said with self-deprecating humor after the audience greeted him with hearty applause. Pisaroni’s next Gershwin selection, “Embraceable You,” displayed a similar affinity for the composer’s sultry melodies and for Ira Gershwin’s amorous lyrics.

He fared less well in other numbers. The rapid-fire patter of “Just Another Rhumba” undid his linguistic dexterity, causing much of the song’s rhythmic humor to be lost. Similar issues plagued Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” although he did better with “In the Still of the Night.”

“So in Love,” from Kiss Me Kate, suffered from strangely wandering pitch and fluctuating tempos. After beginning too slowly, the song ended at a clip that left Pisaroni — who elsewhere exhibited phenomenal breath control — all but gasping for air. This highlighted a general lack of coordination between Pisaroni and his piano accompanist, Craig Terry, that persisted across the evening.

Nearly his

Two selections that should have fit Pisaroni like a glove — “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine,” both from South Pacific — surprisingly fizzled. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the songs for Ezio Pinza, the operatic bass turned Broadway star; the range should not be punishing for a lighter voice. Yet Pisaroni eschewed the high, soft finale of “Some Enchanted Evening” that was a Pinza signature, favoring a lower, less brilliant ending.

“This Nearly Was Mine” betrayed interpretive issues, if not vocal ones. The song portrays a man who realizes he may have ruined his last chance at love. It requires introspection and a real sense of loss. After proving himself a wonderfully on-the-words artist in other numbers, Pisaroni sang this cri de coeur with surprising passivity. The role of Emile de Becque may be in his future, but these performances suggest it’s some years off.

Pisaroni’s Italian offerings provided similarly varied results. He sang Tosti’s “Vorrei morire” (“I would like to die”) with ardency and true idiomatic flair, which carried over to the chilling “L’ultima canzone” (“The last song”). A moment later, he performed Rossini’s rousing “L’orgia” (“The orgy”) with proper ebullience.

But the evening’s opening quartet of songs by Bellini showed a worrisome hollowness at the core of Pisaroni’s voice, particularly evident in the lower end of his range. These songs require a more lushly romantic sound that simply wasn’t there.

Charisma carried him through, but I couldn’t help thinking that Pisaroni’s encore also perfectly encapsulated the experience: “Night and Day.”