Elton John mixed polish and potency at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center to raise funds for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

Take Sir Elton John's resonant turn at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center on October 25, 2006 during Act Two, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts' second major fundraising shindig. The big-buck, clothed-to-the-nines crowd included many of Dallas' elite, large portions of which acted more like it was listening to a Mozart opus than one of pop's greatest melody makers.

But Sir Elton suppressed his grumpy-uncle side and remained gracious, energetic and enthusiastic throughout his hit-laden 90-minute show. He was dressed down by his standards: a loose tuxlike suit (with a vibrant rhinestone mosaic of himself lounging in the jaws of a crocodile on the jacket's back), an untucked cobalt-blue silk shirt, boyish-looking and spiky hair, and gently shaded specs. He smiled often and broadly, though, taking bows after nearly every number and inhaling several stilted but effervescent ovations, which held true to orchestra-hall form in timing and intensity.

Accompanied only by a synth-assisted grand piano and some offstage backing swells, he stormed through a considerate selection of barnburners and quieter ballads and ignored material after 1983's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues." The latter point is notable for two reasons: He's got a new album out full of new songs written with longtime lyricist partner Bernie Taupin, and his forays into opera (Aida) and his success with scoring "The Lion King" with Tim Rice might have supplied fodder for this night. After all, the money raised will help build an opera house and performing arts center.

But Sir Elton had none of that. He roared – literally in places, as the volume was high and treble frequencies were brittle at first – through highlights of his halcyon days, starting daintily with "Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters" and wrapping with a peppy "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" as an encore.

With no band tying him down, the prodigal Sir Elton was free to roam on his keys for many selections; instrumental high points included a ragtimey treatment of "Honky Cat" and the melancholy, dissonant intro to the most obscure of his song choices, "Take Me to the Pilot." Throat surgery 19 years ago robbed him of his falsetto, and that night he short-circuited some elements of his unique, off-time vocal delivery (most notably in the chorus to "Candle in the Wind"), but his pipes remain loud, sharp and potent.

But even a man who can bellow like that – much less a man who has sold 200 million albums worldwide – couldn't quite coax Troy Aikman or Mayor Laura Miller into singing the cartoonish la-la lines in "Crocodile Rock."

Some hearty guests paid $50,000 and more to attend the sold-out show. Those high-net-worth rock fans were summoned to arrive at the Meyerson an hour before show time for a private audience with Elton as well as the evening's emcee, Dame Julie Andrews.

Wearing an enormous diamond-encrusted cross around his neck, even Elton was wowed by the baubles draped across the Dallas women. "There is a lot of jewelry in this room," he mused covetously as he posed for photos with every guest – billionaires like Gene and Jerry Jones, Ross Perot Sr. and his son and daughter-in-law, Ross Jr. and Sarah; Chase Bank chairman Elaine Agather; insurance titan Randall Goss and his wife, Krickett; longtime Dallas arts patron Sis Carr; Nasher Sculpture Center founder Ray Nasher; and Eugene McDermott Foundation president Mary McDermott Cook.

Once onstage, Elton again mentioned the king's ransom of diamonds rattling around the Meyerson. "You better check yourself on the way out," he warned. "I'm quite a pickpocket."

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