Martinez bowled over by musical success

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

Who: Ana Maria Martinez, with Placido Domingo and the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Tickets: $60, $100, $150, $200.

Information: 632-7580.

When singer Ana Maria Martinez won the Pepita Embil Award at Placido Domingo's international voice competition in 1995, she had just completed a young artist-training program at the Houston Grand Opera.

At the time, Martinez said recently from her home in New York City, "I had a few things lined up. But not a whole lot."

Since then the stunning and highly regarded lyric soprano has performed with such opera companies as the Los Angeles Opera (as Mimi in "La Boheme" and Violetta in "La Traviata") and the Vienna State Opera, where she is a resident artist.

Martinez appears regularly with Domingo, as well as Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, with whom she performed in December in Las Vegas. Trailing her from city to city are favorable reviews about her talent and grace.

On Saturday Martinez will join Domingo in concert at Mandalay Bay Events Center. The performance will be backed by the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

Martinez has come a long way from high school when, as a humble teen, she auditioned for a musical believing she couldn't sing well enough to be anything but a chorus member.

She was given the lead.

Or when Martinez transferred to Juilliard after one year as a drama major at Boston Conservatory, and then decided to study opera -- a genre she said intimidated her.

"I thought (opera) was bigger than life," Martinez said reflectively. "I thought, 'How dare I?' "

Born in Puerto Rico, where her mother was a renowned opera singer (who also sang with the 61-year-old Domingo), Martinez moved to Manhattan's Upper West Side when she was 6.

And though Martinez was more interested in rock 'n' roll as a teenager, her course in life seemed predetermined.

When Martinez was 9 years old and singing in a chorus at school, she was teased by other girls about the unique sound of her voice.

Hurt by the incidents, Martinez relayed the event to her mother who, after hearing her daughter sing, told her simply, "You have a vibrato," a fluctuation of pitch in musical tone that adds a warm, expressive quality to the voice.

"That's why I could never really do rock," Martinez said.

Martinez's interest in psychology, philosophy and sociology has been influenced by her father, a Cuban-born psychoanalyst. The introspection helps her understand the characters she performs, she said.

"What I feel for the characters is immense love," Martinez said. As performers, she said, "Our job is to understand them without bias or judging, with love."

Her favorite roles, she said, have been Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni," Adina in "Elixer of Love" and Milesande in "Pelleas et Melisande."

"I wish I could do something for her because she is so lost," Martinez said compassionately of Melisande. "To be under her skin is so loaded because she is so messed up."

Playing such roles, she said, connects her with life, other people's needs and perspectives and gives her a better understanding of humanity.

Martinez also expressed gratitude for invitations to perform with Domingo, and for the efforts the tenor and his wife make to help develop opera singers.

Martinez also has a Latin Grammy sitting on her piano at home for her contribution to the classical album "Albeniz: Merlin" (recorded in 1999), in which she performed with Domingo, Spanish baritone Carlos Alvarez and mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel.

Following Saturday's performance with Domingo, Martinez will be fly back to Vienna to sing Pamina in "Die Zauberflote."

Performing with Domingo or Bocelli, Martinez said, is always a great experience.

"The venues are enormous," she said. "Their fans are die-hard fans. Thousands turn up. It's such an honor to be there. It's quite a magical experience." Our job is to understand them without bias or judging, with love."