'VANESSA' IN GREAT VOICE.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

RESPECTED RATHER than loved may be the kindest way to describe Samuel Barber's first opera, ``Vanessa.'' And if the rambling, Strindbergian work seems an odd choice for Los Angeles Opera. Hot on the heels of ``La Boheme'' and preceding ``Aida,'' it marks the company debut of soprano Kiri Te Kanawa outside of a recital.

The Kiwi diva is now 60, but she looks a good 20 years younger, and she sounds, well, like a gracefully aging singer whose primary vocal asset has always been a ravishing tone. Indeed, one can hardly think of a role better suited to Te Kanawa these days than Barber's magnificently oblivious aristocratic spinster.

Which isn't to say that she steals the show in this striking production, billed as new but in fact an amalgam of borrowed and original parts. Indeed, Te Kanawa faces stiff competition from the two mezzo-sopranos playing her relatives: Lucy Schaufer as her niece, Erika, and Rosalind Elias as her mother, the Baroness.

That such a formidable trio can't compete with, say, the three women (one playing a man) at the center of Richard Strauss' ``Der Rosenkavalier'' isn't the fault of these singers, though. That's Barber's missed opportunity.

The composer apparently sought Maria Callas for the 1958 premiere, a Metropolitan Opera commission. But she found the opera unmelodic and turned it down. She wasn't alone in her lack of affection for the score. In his autobiography, Rudolf Bing, the Met impresario who hired Barber, called Gian Carlo Menotti's libretto ``dull'' and noted that for post- premiere performances, ``the house was empty except for some long- suffering subscribers.''

Yet as an artifact, ``Vanessa'' has merit. The plot is loosely based on a story by Isak Dinesen, but its repressed emotions and Oedipal leanings could easily have been inspired by several Scandinavian playwrights, to say nothing of Eugene O'Neill.

As directed by John Cox and designed by Paul Brown, the slow-moving work has a certain inevitability. Brown makes much of empty space and uses a white scrim (imaginatively lit by Paul Pyant) to impressive effect. The country estate that Vanessa and her family occupy, soon to be visited by Anatol (tenor John Matz), the son of her former lover, looks like a Richard Meier creation, the antique furniture notwithstanding.

Nor can one fault any of the performances, with Schaufer giving a portrayal both vocally and dramatically more compelling than Te Kanawa's emotionally icy approach. At 74, Elias, who sang Erika at the Met premiere, lends magnetic stoicism to a role with long silences.

Matz gains in confidence and power as the opera progresses, but he's never quite suave enough to convince us he's seduced two of the three ladies of the house. Baritone David Evitts, on the other hand, animates the aged Doctor with such pluck as to be adorable.

In the pit, Simone Young, fast becoming a company favorite, gives what must be her all to Barber's meandering score. She and the orchestra emphasize its better moments, which are quite good, and downplay its many inert stretches.

For curiosity value, one is unlikely to do much better than this staging, but keep Callas' reservations in mind: You won't exit whistling.

VANESSA - Three stars

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 tonight and Dec. 9, 15 and 18; 2 p.m. Saturday and Dec. 12.

Tickets: $25 to $190. [phone] or www.losangelesopera.com.

In a nutshell: Samuel Barber's lauded but seldom-seen opera arrives in L.A. as a star vehicle for Kiri Te Kanawa.

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New Zealand-born soprano Kiri Te Kanawa leads the cast in Los Angeles Opera's rendition of ``Vanessa.''