Linda Ronstadt opens the Dunkin’ Donuts Newport Folk Festival at the Tennis Hall of Fame yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires Frieda Squires

NEWPORT — Others can outdo her for sheer, piercing diva power, but few can caress a melody quite like Linda Ronstadt. And last night at the opening concert of the Dunkin’ Donuts Newport Folk Festival, the veteran singer brought her incandescent vocalism to a sampler of pop songs of the 20th century in roughly chronological order — with extra attention of course being paid to the songs she’s best known for.

Starting with “What’s New,” Ronstadt and her small backing band went through classic standards such as “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “Lush Life,” paying tribute to composers such as Billy Strayhorn and Rodgers and Hart.

The hinge of her set was the proto-doo-wop of “It’s Too Soon to Know,” released, as Ronstadt said, in 1948 and serving as a perfect bridge between the standards and the rock-influenced pop of the later decades.

Here, and on the following sequence of “Just One Look” and “Ooo Baby Baby,” Ronstadt came into her own. As a jazz singer she’s strong, but as a rock singer with touches of diction and delivery taken from jazz, she’s matchless.

Ronstadt credited Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman as inheritors of the sophisticated pop tradition of the early part of the century, and renditions of two lesser-known numbers — Webb’s “Adios” and Newman’s “Feels Like Home,” from his version of Faust, were congruent with the classic material.

While a version of “High Sierra,” which Ronstadt recorded with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, fell flat without traditional acoustic backing, the band did an otherwise credible job throughout, including such diverse material as the Warren Zevon rocker “Poor Pitiful Me” and the Latin “Quiereme Mucho.”

Berklee College of Music student Madi Diaz opened the show with a few songs of roots-rock-influenced singer-songwriter pop. Bouncy songs such as the opener “Christine” and “Rust” and the pretty, drowsy closer “Canvas” were highlights. Though the set was a little heavy with ballads, Diaz’s fresh-air voice and way with melody bode well for the future.

After Ronstadt’s opener, “What’s New,” the generator powering the sound system failed, and there was roughly a 25-minute delay while cables were run from the backup generator. During the delay, fans were treated to an impromptu solo-piano concert by festival impresario George Wein, amplified by a small PA system brought out to keep the crowd informed on the progress of repairs.

Wein, who later credited Ronstadt with being “a real pro” who “never got upset” at the delay, said that such a breakdown had happened at other festivals of his, but never at Newport. He said he wasn’t worried that the situation would eventually be brought under control, adding, “25 years ago I might not have been so calm.”

Of his piano improvisation, he simply said, “When there’s nothing else to do, you might as well play the piano.”

rmassimo@projo.com