OPERA STAR SINGS SHOWTUNES - ETC.! ETC.!

Byline: Rick Mortensen Staff Writer

MEZZO-SOPRANO Suzanna Guzman says she owes her opera career to the late stage and screen star Yul Brynner. In 1984, Guzman played Amazon No. 2 and understudied for the role of Lady Thiang in a production of ``The King and I'' starring Brynner, who spent the last decade of his life reprising his famous role as the king of Siam.

Guzman hadn't yet done a turn as Thiang when she was faced with the decision of staying in the Broadway-bound production or competing in the national Metropolitan Opera competition. She brought her dilemma to Brynner. ``I told him, 'If I can go on as Lady Thiang, I would say no to the Met competition,' '' Guzman recalled. ``He said, 'You're welcome to take time off to do the Met competition, but you will never go on as Lady Thiang.' I said, 'Why not?' and he said, 'You're taller than me!' ''

Guzman took the time off, won the Met competition, and began an opera career that has taken her to the Met and the Los Angeles Opera, where she just finished a turn in ``Gianni Schicchi.''

Guzman appreciates that opera roles are rarely given out based on height, but she retained her love of Broadway musicals. She will sing selections from ``The King and I,'' an aria from ``Carmen'' and several Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes with the California Philharmonic this weekend.

``There's nothing like singing in English,'' Guzman said. ``When Oscar Hammerstein wrote 'the earth smelled like summer,' it can be translated. But when you say to people 'the earth smelled like summer,' it just evokes such incredible imagery - and sensual imagery - and when you combine that with being outdoors, it's so evocative. It's really thrilling.''

Tonight's concert will begin the orchestra's sixth annual Festival on the Green concert series at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County. Called ``Basically Broadway,'' the concert will also feature baritone Kevin Earley and the Los Angeles Chorale.

Putting classical favorites on the same program with Broadway, pop and film music selections is the modus operandi of the biweekly concerts, which typically attract around 4,000 people.

``What I hope to do in Cal Phil is to break down the idea that there really are these kinds of styles, that if you probably won't like opera, that if you like film music you probably won't like classical,'' said the orchestra's conductor, Victor Vener. ``The reality is, Mozart would have been proud to have written some of Richard Rodgers' melodies. Schubert would have been thrilled to have written some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's tunes.''

Guzman's passionate performances in the title role of ``Carmen'' have won her critical acclaim - Time magazine called her a ``fire-eating singing actress'' - but this concert will require her to switch from a ``legitimate'' opera voice to a Broadway-style belt. Vener said Guzman has the vocal versatility to pull it off.

``It's a little bit of a departure, because when we've worked with Suzanna in the past, it's been as a straight-up opera star, and now she's cast as a Broadway star,'' Vener said. ``I think that makes a lot of sense, because good singers are good singers.''

While the number of roles for operatic sopranos allows them to specialize as Wagnerian sopranos or Verdi sopranos, working mezzo-sopranos (whose range is a bit lower) must alter their vocal style to suit everything from Handel to Bizet. Guzman said it's also important to know how to belt.

``Almost all Rodgers and Hammerstein can be sung in a legit (opera) voice - all you have to do is articulate the English more - but to sing Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber, you really have to switch to a clearer sound,'' she said. ``Otherwise, it's like a rock singer trying to sing opera or vice versa - it's not stylistically appropriate.''

Mixing Broadway and opera singing is typical of this year's Festival on the Green, which mixes the orchestra with the USC Trojan Marching Band for the final concert, ``March Madness.''

Rodgers and Hammerstein will be mixed with ballet on Aug. 17, with guest dancers Helena Pokomy and Brett Weidlich.

The other concerts mix such ``top 40'' classical pieces as Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky's ``1812'' Overture with less frequently played works like Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 and Joaquin Rodrigo's ``Concierto de Aranjuez'' for guitar and orchestra.

``What I'm trying to do is bring the sophisticated listener and the new listener to the same place at the same time and have both of them leaving feeling like they learned a little bit,'' Vener said. ``This isn't the high church of music, and it isn't slapstick comedy, but there is a sense of what I call the three E's: entertainment, enlightenment and education.''

CALIFORNIA PHILHARMONIC

What: Season opener ``Basically Broadway,'' featuring mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman, baritone Kevin Earley and the Los Angeles Chorale.

Where: The Arboretum of Los Angeles County, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia (just south of the 210 Freeway at Baldwin).

When: 7:30 tonight; gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking.

Tickets: $15 to $63; discount for groups of 20 or more. Call [phone] or go online to www.calphil.org.

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(1 -- 2) Mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman, left, and California Philharmonic conductor Victor Vener will team up tonight for a concert of songs from stage and screen.