A Down-to Earth Diva

In a world of many figurative prima donnas, Carol Vaness is a literal one.

Soprano Vaness is in such demand that she’s booked in opera houses and concert halls through 2000. Her exceptional stage presence helped make L.A. Opera’s recent “Tosca” a near sell-out every night. Her clear, refined voice has made her a favorite for Mozart and Verdi roles around the world.

But she doesn’t talk like a diva.

In fact, Vaness, 44, would just as soon chat about her exercise regimen as her desire to play Medea. Or talk about the federal government’s inattention to arts education as her own jet-setting career.

Married New Year’s Eve to choreographer Bruce Brown, Vaness took some time off for a honeymoon in Jamaica. But soon she was back at work in Houston, practicing for a series of recitals, including one tonight at the Alex Theatre.

Vaness will sing a program that includes art songs by Gioacchino Rossini, Richard Strauss and Ernest Chausson.

“It’s kind of like doing a million little operas,” Vaness said of the recital. “It requires a different type of concentration. . . . In opera, you have so many things to think about that aren’t in your control--your costume, the set, the orchestra, the other performers. With recitals, you have the same type of concentration, but it’s an internal concentration.”

In other words, she said, you have to convey running across the stage and throwing yourself on the floor in despair without really doing it.

Vaness is, in some respects, an unlikely diva. She was born in San Diego and grew up in Pomona, where her father was a security guard. Her mother worked for a time in a missile factory, then ran the laundry for a nursing home. While everyone in her family could sing, none had ever performed professionally.

When Vaness was about 7, her grandfather noticed her musical talent. The family scraped together the money for a piano and she started taking lessons. Like most kids, though, she didn’t like to practice. But she loved to perform. “I was sort of a natural performer,” she said. “If I could learn something, I really wanted people to listen.”

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She went to Cal Poly Pomona and studied piano and English. She took a voice class only because she was smitten by the teacher. He, however, was taken by her voice. After graduation, he recommended she audition for David Scott, a voice professor at Cal State Northridge.

Scott, who still heads CSUN’s opera program, remembers their first meeting in fall of 1974.

“She came in with just a lot of zip and energy and a kind of drive,” he said. “I’ll never forget. She had on these platforms--and she’s already 5-10 or 5-11--and she has on some jeans and wildly high platforms.

“And it was kind of an interesting thing: She’d brought one or two friends with her. Male friends. They were just kind of fans. Here she is, really never having done much, but already she had this fan club with her. I always thought that was amusing, and somehow kind of telling. If you know divas, they always have their entourages.”

It was hard to judge what Vaness’ true capacity would be at first, Scott said. Her voice was strong, but wild. But by the time she landed at the New York City Opera in 1979, he was more confident. And so was she.

“She said she wanted to sing at the Met. Well, everyone wants to sing at the Met,” Scott said. “But she said it in such a way that I believed that she would cross over that patio.”

Vaness has gone on to sing at the Met. And the Chicago Lyric Opera. And the San Francisco Opera. And throughout Europe, with companies from Barcelona to Berlin.

Lotfi Mansouri, artistic director of the San Francisco Opera, has followed Vaness’ career since he saw her as an apprentice in San Francisco. It is the combination of her musicality and dramatic intelligence that makes her unique among American sopranos, he said.

What Vaness is not known for is overpowering volume. Mansouri agreed that she isn’t a Wagnerian soprano--the stereotypically short and heavy woman wearing Viking headgear. Still, he said, “To sing Fiordiligi [in “Cosi Fan Tutte”] at the Met, you can’t have a small voice.”

Some opera aficionados worried that Vaness might lose vocal strength a few years back when, seemingly suddenly, she began to lose weight. Actually, she said, it took a year to lose the 55 pounds she shed.

“It’s a very athletic profession anyway. But there has been this concept of opera singers that you have to weigh 500 pounds. And I don’t. I have been 55 pounds heavier . . . and being 55 pounds lighter feels better,” she said. “They kept saying ‘Oh, did it affect your voice?’ as if we sing with our fat,” Vaness said. “If to lose weight all I did was eat 800 calories a day and lay around, of course I’d be weak.”

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Instead, she feels stronger, because the weight loss came almost solely from exercise--about an hour every day. Her cardiovascular system is stronger, she said, and the time in the gym helps her decompress from the stresses of rehearsing, traveling and performing.

She has a full plate of touring and recording for the next few years: to New York for “War Requiem” with the Philharmonic and “Cosi Fan Tutte” at the Met, then Seattle, Japan, Vienna. But at the end of that list, she’s looking to expand into some new roles, like Medea.

“Mozart served me very well, because I was able to bring a good-sized voice and rich sound to parts that were quite flutish. But the minute someone finds out you’re good at something, you do it everywhere,” she said. “You can’t run a record in the same groove all the time. Otherwise, you’re going to get worn out, and you’re going to get scratches.”

DETAILS

* WHAT: Carol Vaness in recital.

* WHERE: Alex Theater, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

* WHEN: 8 tonight.

* HOW MUCH: $40-$48.50.

* CALL: (800) 233-3123.