The performance had weaknesses: Mr. Thomas was unable to give Aeneas much life, and although Ms. Kirkby was mostly a wonder as Dido, the quality that is usually her strength -- her clear, light timbre -- made her sound oddly coquettish in her final encounter with Aeneas.
He has a strong voice with a clear, ringing timbre that climbs effortlessly to the soaring high notes.
Ms. Spalding is savvy enough to recognize her vocal strengths: a clear, lightly sultry timbre and a springy flexibility within her range.
His setting of an Octavio Paz poem, "Un despertar" ("An awakening"), from 2008, is more subdued, and was performed gracefully by Evan Hughes, a bass-baritone with a light, appealing timbre, and Cory Smythe, the pianist who also played "on a clear day" (2004), the gentle, soft-edged piano work that opened the program.
In so doing, Britten makes clear the different timbres of the different sections of the orchestra.
His setting of an Octavio Paz poem, "Un despertar" ("An awaking"), from 2008, is more subdued, and was performed gracefully by Evan Hughes, a bass-baritone with a light, appealing timbre, and Cory Smythe, the pianist who also played "on a clear day" (2004), the gentle, soft-edged piano work that opened the program.
"Her timbre was clear and strong, her intonation pitch-perfect," Stephen Holden wrote in a review in The New York Times.
The young countertenor Ian Howell sang with a clear voice and attractive timbre as Daniel, a Jewish prophet, although he sometimes sounded tentative, and his words often lacked sufficient weight and shading.
And after expanding on his patented minimalist trip-soul on his May release, "The Colour in Anything," James Blake returns to Radio City Music Hall (Oct . 3, with electric odes to evening chills and a timbre that clears storm clouds.
Mr. Bostridge wielded his clear tenor, with its distinctive timbre, to fine effect.
