EVEN WITHOUT FULL POWER, PAVAROTTI CAN STILL THRILL.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

AN ARENA more known for body checks, slam dunks and raucous crowds was transformed Tuesday night into a setting for opera's most luminous star - Luciano Pavarotti. With black curtains closing off the upper deck and a large black drape used as a backdrop for the stage, the Staples Center almost had the feel of intimacy as the 67-year-old world-renowned tenor performed for what may be one of his last shows in Los Angeles.

So it was an interested and interesting crowd that turned out, including a contingent of ladies from his Tokyo fan club. They had traveled from Japan and sat in a row toward the front, holding stuffed, rotund Pavarotti dolls and hand fans with the tenor's face at the center on an Italian flag.

When Pavarotti took the stage, emerging from a boxlike tent behind the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and up a center aisle, the tuxedoed virtuoso - looking more rotund than the dolls - moved with obvious deliberation. Last Thursday, the tenor performed in the tiny Persian Gulf country of Qatar and was described as looking a little weak. That observation held as he used a padded stand to lean back against and a lectern to rest his right arm upon while he sang. A white handkerchief was held in his left.

He began the evening with two works by Puccini, ``Tra voi belle'' from ``Manon Lescaut'' and ``Addio, fiorito asil!'' from ``Madam Butterfly'' and then was gone, led back to the tent by conductor Leone Magiera. It seemed Pavarotti had barely warmed up when American soprano Cynthia Lawrence was on stage singing arias from the same two operas.

The two then alternated through much of the evening, ending the first half together with the exchange between Mimi and Rodolfo from early in Puccini's ``La Boheme'' that ends with the lovely duet ``O soave fanciulla.'' The decision to give so much stage time over to Lawrence was - we assume - to give the aging grand tenor a chance to pace himself throughout the evening. (He has hinted that he'll stop singing when he turns 70 on Oct. 12, 2005.)

Not until the end of the concert did the crowd get a real sense of Pavarotti's magic. In performing three numbers - familiar to even casual opera fans and not particularly challenging - he seemed to enjoy himself. And when Pavarotti is enjoying himself - with a teddy bearish presence and warm smile - is when his fans enjoy him most.

While it's true the power in the virtuoso's voice is not what it once was (he has clearly learned to use a microphone well), his diction is not always crisp, and some of his notes are not rounded off as nicely as you wish, there is still the warmth in his sound that has endeared him to opera fans during his 40-year career.

Opera singing is technically demanding, but it isn't always about technique. During one Pavarotti-Lawrence duet, an audience member observed, ``She's just trying so hard, while he could be doing his ABCs.'' That certainly goes to Pavarotti's appeal, as seen in the famed ``Vesti la giubba'' from Leoncavallo's ``I Pagliacci,'' which is often campily or hysterically performed. Somehow, though, the tenor, by understating it, gave it a humanity.

Lawrence, who has a beautiful voice, had her moments on Tuesday, and the L.A. Opera Orchestra performed quite admirably. But the audience was waiting for the big tenor, who mostly delivered his greatest hits on this night, to wow them. He didn't, but he left them with a warm feeling. His encores consisted of crowd favorites ``Granada,'' ``O Sole Mio'' and a duet with Lawrence on ``Libiamo ne lieti calici'' (the toast or drinking song) from Verdi's ``La Traviata,'' in which he urged the audience to sing whatever words they like during the chorus but ``no clap.''

Somehow I was reminded of the last years of Picasso's life when he still continued to work. The pieces he produced were not like the great art that he once created, but they did contain reminders of his wit and lines that were uniquely Picasso's. And for that they were cherished. Tuesday evening's performance was something like that.

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In what may be his final concert performance in L.A., Luciano Pavarotti pleased his fans Tuesday at Staples Center.

Mike Guastella/WireImage.com