Long before he became part of the Three Tenors juggernaut, José Carreras was a singer -- a splendid one, in fact, blessed with a limpid sound and an elegant way with a musical phrase.

It was good to be reminded of that fact, even intermittently, during the Spanish tenor's Sunday night recital in Davies Symphony Hall.

Although much of the evening felt like a scaled-down version of the huge arena shows Carreras has been giving with his pals Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, there were just enough musical rewards to remind a listener that we were dealing with an artist rather than a marketing phenomenon.

Still, Tenormania was the defining force for most of the event. The program consisted of nearly two hours' worth of bite-sized musical morsels, calculated to place minimal demands on the adoring audience that packed Davies and greeted the 51-year-old superstar with a standing ovation before he'd even opened his mouth.

Accompanied with admirable self-effacement by pianist Lorenzo Bavaj, Carreras offered songs in Italian, French and Spanish by composers ranging from Alessandro Scarlatti, Puccini and Leoncavallo to Mario Costa and Tata Nacho. A long string of encores included ``With a Song in My Heart'' and ``Torna a Suriento.''

Much of Carreras' singing in this intimate hall was beset by the sort of problems that a stadium sound system would kindly gloss over. The strained top notes, sagging pitch and labored tone production obtruded -- much more noticeably than they might have done with electronic amplification and plenty of reverberation room.

But Carreras' innate musical gifts still managed to shine through it all. After beginning with a particularly rocky traversal of the Scarlatti set, he immediately rebounded with a magnificent rendition of Bellini's ``Fenesta che lucive,'' full of tonal ardor and dramatic sweep.

Similar high points were scattered at unpredictable intervals throughout the evening. Carreras began a trio of songs by Francesco Paolo Tosti in fine form, with a ringing account of ``Apri,'' then faltered in the remaining ``Chanson de l'adieu'' and ``L'ultima canzone.''

He sang an appealingly straightforward version of Alberto Ginastera's ``Cancion al arbol del olvido,'' only to struggle moments later through three laborious Leoncavallo songs. The most sustained achievement of the evening came during the final Puccini triptych, launched by a sumptuous rendition of ``Sole e amore'' (music that later found its way into Act 3 of ``La Boheme'') and crowned by a thrillingly dramatic and fearless account of ``Terra e mare.''

Membership in the Three Tenors has clearly been a mixed blessing for Carreras, who has not sung at the San Francisco Opera since 1978. Organized in the aftermath of his harrowing brush with leukemia, these concert extravaganzas seem to have helped ease his passage back into performing, and they can only have done his bank account a world of good.

But to a dismaying extent, they have come to define him, especially in the United States where, unlike Pavarotti and Domingo, Carreras has done little else over the past decade.

For anyone who still cherishes a sense of the opera singer he once was -- and for all we know, may yet be again -- Sunday's collection of snippets and showpieces was far from heartening.

Copyright © 1998 San Francisco Chronicle