Texas Tenor Moves Out of Shadow of the Masters : Opera: A vocally confident Paul Hartfield makes his San Diego debut in ‘La Fille du Regiment.’

Between the ubiquitous recordings of Pavarotti and the ghost of Caruso, operatic tenors work in a state of constant comparison.

Baritones and basses may be judged on their own merits, but aspiring tenors are seldom accorded that courtesy. Ask Paul Hartfield, the 33-year-old tenor from Nacogdoches, Tex., who is in town to sing Tonio in the San Diego Opera production of Donizetti’s “La Fille du Regiment.”

“In my early opera auditions,” explained Hartfield, “impresarios and opera directors would say, ‘But you don’t have that free feeling that Bjorling had,’ and I’d tell them, ‘Well, I’m not Bjorling.’ ”

Of course, Hartfield had his own obsession with another tenor superstar.

“In my late 20s I was still thinking I was the world’s greatest Rodolfo (in Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’). When you’re young, you think crazy things, and I said, ‘I’m the next Pavarotti!’ ”

Hartfield also recalls that a review of his first professional opera appearance compared his shape--but not his pear-shaped tones--with that of the celebrated Italian tenor. Fortunately, Hartfield has been able to find his own voice and repertory quite apart from comparisons, vocal or endomorphic. After nearly a decade of singing the big Puccini roles, he now feels his voice is better-suited to the lyrical tenor roles of the bel canto school, especially the operas of Donizetti.

“You’ve caught me at a transition time in my musical life,” he said. “I’ve had a new revelation, all in the last 90-180 days, about where I should be focusing. Having done Donizetti’s ‘Maria Stuarda’ in Hong Kong, I’m beginning to think now that this is the way I should go.

“I still have things scheduled, a (Pinkerton in) ‘Butterfly’ later this year, but I don’t know if that’s the best literature for me. When I was in Europe this fall, everyone I sang for or worked with said I should come to Europe and sing this bel canto stuff.”

Except for the alacrity with which he consumed his plate of pasta over lunch, Hartfield hardly conformed to the stereotype of an opera singer. Relaxed and down-to-earth, he refers to his most recent operatic role as “the last show we did.”

But this Lone Star tenor’s lack of pretense is not to be confused with lack of experience. He began his serious opera schooling in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s apprentice program, where he worked two years. Now a regular at New York City Opera, Hartfield comes to San Diego Opera’s “La Fille du Regiment” from his European debut this fall in Paris and then Liege. In Paris he sang a new role, the Italian tenor in Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier,” and in Belgium he returned to one of his staples, Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”

“I’ve practically made my career singing the Duke in ‘Rigoletto,’ ” Hartfield noted.

Hartfield didn’t become a convert to opera until late in his college career--he did his undergraduate work at Stephen F. Austin University in his native Nacogdoches--while he was preparing to become a choral director.

“Unfortunately, I was born left-handed, so my conducting was not excessively great,” he said. “I never could break this left hand from moving when I needed to use the right.”

His experience with opera in East Texas, however, was largely through recordings.

“One of the great joys of doing this show here is working with (conductor) Richard Bonynge because the first opera recording I heard was one of Bonynge’s,” Hartfield said. “At that time, I was so unfamiliar and uneducated in this art form called opera. But listening to his records generated an inner excitement, an animalistic excitement, and I began to fall in love with opera.”

While pursuing graduate work at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, he also fell in love and married another music student. Paul and his wife, Robyn, maintain their home in Kansas City, Mo., where she teaches music in a private school.

“We have a 10-month-old daughter. I want her to be the first female tenor, but we’ll be happy with any career she chooses.”