Lawrence Brownlee

Last updated
Brownlee Lawrence Brownlee at Soho Apple Store (cropped).jpg
Brownlee

Lawrence Brownlee (born November 24, 1972) is an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire. Describing his voice, Speight Jenkins, general director of the Seattle Opera, said: "There are other singers that sing this repertory very well, but I don't think anyone else has quite as beautiful a sound and as rounded a tone," and praise his "incredible top notes", adding about his high F (F5) in "Credeasi, misera": "With him it's not a scream, it's a beautiful sound." [1] Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato adds: "He is always in service of the music. His natural instrument is just incredibly beautiful. The word 'honey' comes to mind. He also has technical prowess and agility." [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Brownlee and Damien Sneed at Soho Apple store Lawrence Brownlee and Damien Sneed at Soho Apple Store.jpg
Brownlee and Damien Sneed at Soho Apple store

Brownlee was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He grew up without much exposure to classical music, but had an extremely musical childhood, playing trumpet, guitar and drums, and singing Gospel music in church. [2] His first gigs were at an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, singing pop and show tunes. [3] Brownlee attended Anderson University in Indiana for his undergraduate degree and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for graduate studies. He studied with soprano Costanza Cuccaro, David Starkey, and Fritz Robertson. [1] While a graduate student, he became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, his desire to become a member was due in large part to his association with members of its Alpha chapter, founded at Indiana University Bloomington in January 1911. He was officially initiated into the Indianapolis Alumni Chapter in the fall of 1999, but considers himself close to the founding chapter and was involved in many of its activities while a student. He became a life member in 2008. [4]

Brownlee participated in young artist programs at the Seattle Opera and the Wolf Trap Opera Company. [5] [6]

Career

Brownlee's professional stage debut took place in 2002 as Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Virginia Opera. [5] Brownlee made his Metropolitan Opera debut in a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 2007. The role has since become one of his most recognizable and famous. [1] He has subsequently appeared in Il Barbiere in Vienna, Milan, Berlin, Madrid, Dresden, Munich, Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Tokyo, New York, Washington, San Diego, Seattle, and Boston. [4] Brownlee's career highlights include performances of The Barber of Seville at the Vienna State Opera, the Boston Lyric Opera and Madrid's Teatro Real. He has appeared in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola at Milan's La Scala, as Belfiore in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims in Brussels, and as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at the Cincinnati Opera. He has also received acclaim in Rossini's Armida , alongside Renée Fleming, [7] in the famously challenging role of Tonio in La fille du régiment, and as Arturo in I puritani [8] at the Metropolitan Opera. [1] In 2014 Brownlee, Juan Diego Flórez, and Javier Camarena were called "The Three Tenors," and said to "represent a new golden age in high male voices and in the singular thrill of their top notes." [9]

In concert, Brownlee has performed in Handel's Messiah with the Houston Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. He has given recitals under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was featured in one of that Foundation's Gala Concerts at Lincoln Center. [4] [10] In May 2010, Brownlee performed a concert with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the United States Supreme Court Building for the Supreme Court justices. [11] He also gives recitals with selections from his Spiritual Sketches album with Damien Sneed, new arrangements of traditional music, including for an NPR "Tiny Desk Concert". [12] [13]

Brownlee created the role of Syme in Lorin Maazel's opera 1984 in its world premiere at London's Royal Opera House on May 3, 2005. In 2015, he performed the role of Charlie Parker in the premiere of Daniel Schnyder's opera Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia. [14] In 2018, Brownlee premiered Cycles of My Being, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Carnegie Hall, composed by Tyshawn Sorey and poetry by Terrance Hayes. This song cycle centers on what it means to be a black man living in America today; in 2020 it was made into a film with Opera Philadelphia and released on their digital channel.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Brownlee lives in Niceville, Florida [15] with his wife, Kendra, and their two children. He is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also likes photography and playing table tennis, and is an avid salsa dancer. [1] He sang the national anthem at Heinz Field on November 15, 2015, when the Steelers played the Cleveland Browns.

Awards

Recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecilia Bartoli</span> Italian opera singer

Cecilia BartoliOMRI is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best known for her interpretations of the music of Bellini, Handel, Mozart, Rossini and Vivaldi, as well as for her performances of lesser-known music from the Baroque and Classical period. She is known for singing both soprano and mezzo roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Diego Flórez</span> Peruvian liric tenor (tenore di grazia)

Juan Diego Flórez is a Peruvian operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in bel canto operas. On June 4, 2007, he received his country's highest decoration, the Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Sun of Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivica Genaux</span> American coloratura mezzo-soprano (b1969)

Vivica Genaux is an American coloratura mezzo-soprano. She was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. She has sung in major operas such as The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera, L'italiana in Algeri at Opéra National de Paris, and La Cenerentola with Dallas Opera and the Bavarian State Opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Abbado</span> Italian conductor

Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma. Previously he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester.

Lorenzo Regazzo, is an opera singer. His voice can be categorised as bass, bass-baritone or basso cantante. He is especially well known for interpreting Baroque, Classical, and bel canto repertoire. Among the qualities frequently noted by the critical press are his virtuosic coloratura technique, sumptuous tone, and vivid stage presence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Larmore</span> American opera singer (born 1958)

Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, particularly noted for her performances in coloratura and bel canto roles which she has performed in the world's major opera houses. She has been a professor at the Music College of Seoul National University since March 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce DiDonato</span> American mezzo-soprano

Joyce DiDonato is an American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozart.

Stella Zambalis is an American spinto soprano born in Cleveland, Ohio. She has been called one of the best sopranos in the world today.

William L. Lewis is an American operatic tenor and academic.

Barry Banks is a Grammy Nominated English/American lyric tenor who, after a long association with The Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera, has achieved acclaim as one of finest interpreters of the Italian bel canto repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Lindsey</span> American opera singer

Kate Lindsey is a mezzo-soprano opera singer from the United States. She is married to the documentary filmmaker Olly Lambert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stabat Mater (Rossini)</span>

Stabat Mater is a work by Gioachino Rossini based on the traditional structure of the Stabat Mater sequence for chorus and soloists. It was composed late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera. He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riccardo Frizza</span> Italian conductor (born 1971)

Riccardo Frizza is an Italian conductor, particularly known for his work in the Italian operatic repertoire. After making his professional conducting debut in 2001 with Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, he went on to conduct in the leading opera houses of Europe and the United States, including La Scala, La Fenice. the Paris Opera, and New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Michele Mariotti, born in 1979 in Urbino, near Pesaro, is an Italian conductor, the direttore musicale since 2014 of Teatro Comunale di Bologna. A graduate in composition of Pesaro's Conservatorio Rossini, where he also studied orchestral conducting, he made his professional opera debut with Il barbiere di Siviglia in Salerno on Oct. 12, 2005. As of April 2017, his repertory included nine Rossini and eight Verdi operas, an extraordinary achievement, as well as symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner and Schubert, the Rossini Stabat mater, the Mozart Requiem and the Verdi Requiem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Alberghini</span> Italian opera singer

Simone Alberghini is an Italian operatic baritone, known especially for his interpretations of belcanto operas of Mozart and Rossini.

Michael Spyres is an American operatic baritenor. He is particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire, especially the works of Rossini, and heroic roles in French grand opera.

Svetlina Stoyanova is a Bulgarian operatic mezzo-soprano.

<i>The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala</i> 1994 live album by Roger Norrington

The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala is a live album of operatic and sacred music by Gioachino Rossini, performed by Rockwell Blake, Craig Estep, Maria Fortuna, Thomas Hampson, George Hogan, Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Kuhlmann, Mimi Lerner, Chris Merritt, Jan Opalach, Samuel Ramey, Henry Runey, Frederica von Stade, Deborah Voigt, the Concert Chorale of New York and the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington. It was released in 1993 as a 119-minute video album and in 1994 as a 78-minute CD.

Silvia Tro Santafé is a Spanish lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. In her early career she was best known for her interpretations of Handel and became notable for her performances of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and in recent years Verdi.

Russian-Austrian soprano Anna Netrebko has released several solo recital albums and was featured in opera recordings, both on audio and on film. She recorded primarily with Deutsche Grammophon, to which she signed exclusively in 2003. Some of her filmed Metropolitan Opera performances are available on Met Opera on Demand.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schweitzer Vivien: "Top Notes That Shatter The Glass Ceiling", The New York Times March 11, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Lawrence Brownlee: A Rising Star Arrives at the Met", NPR, April 22, 2007
  3. Woolfe, Zachary (4 May 2014). "Three Stars Who Navigate on High C's". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "About Lawrence Brownlee", lawrencebrownlee.com
  5. 1 2 Jacobson, Bernard: "Seattle Opera's Barber of Seville marks a happy return for tenor Lawrence Brownlee", The Seattle Times , January 8, 2011
  6. "Homecoming: Lawrence Brownlee" Archived 2011-11-05 at the Wayback Machine , Wolf Trap Opera Official Blog, August 14, 2011
  7. Donald Rosenberg: "Youngstown-born tenor Lawrence Brownlee finds contentment in the grandeur of opera and the intimacy of art songs". The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), May 16, 2010
  8. Tommasini, Anthony (18 April 2014). "Allowing a Puritan to Marry for Love". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  9. Woolfe, Zachary (4 May 2014). "Three Stars Who Navigate on High C's". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  10. DiDonato, Joyce: "Featured Artist in La Cenerentola", NPR, November 16, 2007
  11. "Opera-loving justices bring the music to the high court" by Robert Barnes, The Washington Post , May 17, 2010
  12. "Lawrence Brownlee: Tiny Desk Concert". NPR. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  13. Midgette, Anne (14 May 2014). "Lawrence Brownlee offers arc of self-revelation in Vocal Arts DC recital". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  14. "Charlie Parker's "Yardbird"". Opera Philadelphia. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  15. Interview by “Screaming Divas” Sondra Radvaovski and Kerry Alkema, July 6, 2020
  16. D'Astolfo, Guy: "A homecoming of sorts for Youngstown native Lawrence Brownlee" Archived 2013-04-16 at archive.today , The New York Times , "Tuesday Musical", February 7, 2008)
  17. Seattle Opera (16 July 2008)