A Grand Night for Singing : Frederica von Stade and Thomas Hampson join the Santa Barbara Symphony for a ‘Gala Opera Concert’ that lives up to its billing.

SANTA BARBARA —  The phony moon glowed on Tuesday amid the electric stars on the vaulting ceiling that impersonates the night sky within the Arlington Theatre. The quasi-dressy audience, which had paid up to $100 for the privilege, filled the vast spaces between the faux adobes on the side walls.

The mock-pueblo stage in the golden-age movie palace was populated by the Santa Barbara Symphony, guest-conductor Roger Nierenberg and two of the biggest and brightest luminaries from the irrational world of opera, Frederica von Stade and Thomas Hampson.

Disney’s “Lion King” was out for the night. Something billed as a “Gala Opera Concert” was in.

The billing didn’t turn out to be totally accurate. Von Stade and Hampson spent much of their grand night for singing in pursuit of show tunes.

Though the pursuit may have seemed trivial, the results remained classy. Von Stade and Hampson are too smart, too tasteful, too honest and too sophisticated to bury their art in slush, no matter what that challenge.

Many singers have voices. Some have brains. Von Stade and Hampson happen to have both.

And that’s not all, folks. They also have charm.

Their concert began, inevitably, with some orchestral stalling--in this case, the overture to Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla.” Here--as in the Bizet, Gounod and Offenbach padding that followed--Nierenberg drew crisp energetic, propulsive performances from the Santa Barbara Symphony. For better or worse, the maestro from Jacksonville and Stamford, Conn., is no dawdler.

When the main business commenced, Handsome Hampson, a Don Giovanni in tails, vamped pretty Von Stade, a sleek Zerlina in a simple black sheath, while vying for an errant spotlight. Interpretive suavity eventually triumphed.

The baritone, whose training included some time at the Music Academy of the West as well as USC, returned for more Mozart: the Count’s aria from “Le Nozze di Figaro,” in an elegantly embellished version that evaded the ascending climax so troubling to many an operatic aristocrat. Von Stade countered with a sweetly melting account of Cherubino’s “Voi che sapete.”

And off they went.

Hampson sounded a bit strained in Posa’s “Per me giunto” from “Don Carlo,” a bit dry in Figaro’s “Largo al factotum.” Even so, one had to admire his nuanced inflection of the Italian text, his constant concern for dynamic point and, where appropriate, his fine legato control.

The dangers of mannerism may loom on the horizon, but Hampson hasn’t reached the horizon yet. Thank goodness.

Von Stade offered an exquisite surprise in the form of a Habanera in which Carmen scored all her insinuating points, for once, with subtlety and muted sensuality. Nary a hand reached hip. Nary a chest-tone reached growl. It made one regret that she has never ventured the role in the opera house.

Rosina’s cavatina found the mezzo-soprano on familiar bravura ground, gently seductive and easily witty.

After an endearing if unabashedly hammy “Barbiere” duet, it was time for intermission. Also time for a change of clothes, a change of tone, and a change of acoustics. Not all the changes were for the better.

In Valentin’s hum-along aria from “Faust,” Hampson (now modeling a white dinner jacket) offered a object lesson in mellifluous pathos. In Siebel’s impetuous aria from the same opera, Von Stade (now modeling a sleeveless tuxedo pantsuit) suggested what a first-rate artist can do with a second-rate role.

Then came the Broadway stuff. The soloists propped themselves on stools and, for reasons unknown, sang into hand microphones that provided sonic distortion as well as abnormal decibels. Unlike some opera stars on crossover trips, however, Hampson and Von Stade didn’t croon, didn’t assume low-brow airs, didn’t suggest they were camping or, worse, slumming. One had to be grateful for big favors.

The agenda here included predictable excerpts from “State Fair,” “Show Boat,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I,” “Kiss Me, Kate” and “West Side Story.”

Von Stade, at her wistful best, turned the recitative that precedes “Hello, Young Lovers” into poignant poetry. Oddly accompanied by a guitar, she made “Bill” from “Show Boat” emphatically hers.

Hampson took the comic-macho bravado of “Where Is the Life That Late I Led?” and ran with it. And ran and ran and ran.

The excellent Santa Barbara orchestra provided lush accompaniment in response to Nierenberg’s enlightened urgings. Occasionally, however, the tempos seemed a bit unyielding.

Von Stade and Hampson skipped one promised item, “They Say It’s Wonderful” from “Annie Get Your Gun,” but added one rapturous encore, “If I Loved You” from “Carousel.”

The amateurish program booklet offered no texts and no program notes. Nevertheless, it did provide some interesting biographical data. Hampson, we are told, has sung “the title role of Ambroise in Thomas’ ‘Hamlet,’ ” not to mention “settings of Walt Whitman’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro.’ ” What’s in a name. . . ?

Leaves of Mozart. . . ?

Oh, never mind.