The price was high, the measure was short and the voice wasn't what it once was. But Spanish tenor José Carreras brought nearly 2000 people to their feet Friday night in the Buell Theatre at the end of a recital of Italian and Spanish art songs.

Sympathetically accompanied and the piano by Lorenzo Bavaj, the 52 year old youngest member of the Three Tenors offered not one operatic aria and nothing by Andrew Lloyd Webber or the rest of his crossover repertoire. He also didn't address a single word to the audience. Dressed in black evening wear, his right hand on the piano and his left stretched toward his listeners, Carreras showed what an intelligent singer can do to husband resources late in a career. Placing nearly everything in the still-solid middle range of his voice, Carreras shaped songs by Bellini, Costa, D'Anzi, Tosti, Nacho, Ginastera, Leoncavello and Puccini with a combination of tenderness and ardor, even if most of his listeners had probably never heard them before and didn't understand a word.

Subtly amplified for the far corners of the theater, Carreras showed he still has a virile and rounded sound when not pressing his tone or attempting high notes. When he did the latter, the sound constricted, lacking the bloom that once made him one of the world's most admired lirico spinto tenors. And in Puccinis "Mentia al avviso" a dreadful wobble invaded his vibrato.

But elsewhere, as in Bellinis "Fenesta che Iucive" he released high notes almost immediately in a decrescendo. Or, as in Tosti's "L'ultima canzone" he resorted to soft falsetto.

There was barely one hour of music, including one encore, and that had some patrons grumbling, as top seats cost $150. But the majority stood, applauded, whistled and cheered for a singer who just over a decade ago battled and overcame leukemia, rekindled his career as one of the Three Tenors and continues to connect with his audience - even if many were sorry not to hear "e lucevan le stelle" "Pourquoi me reveiller" or at least "Torna a Suriento".