| By Jonathan Gramling Youngstown, Ohio is a steel and auto-manufacturing town made hard by the decline of the steel industry in the 1970s. It is blue collar all the way, hardly a ‘hot bed’ of opera. Yet John DeMain, the conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra hails from Youngstown and so does one of the orchestra’s guest vocalists this weekend, Lawrence Brownlee, a tenor who will sing Rossini’s Stabat Mater. While Brownlee dreamed of being a lawyer as he was growing up and going to school, his voice had other plans for him. And it is his voice that carried him out of Youngstown and into the opera Brownlee began singing through his high school’s music arts program. “I became a member of a show choir that traveled extensively,” Brownlee said during a phone interview with The Capital City Hues. “That was my first opportunity to travel outside the United States. We traveled to France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. From there, my introduction to classical music came as a result of a program that I was in as a senior in high school for gifted music students. I had to sing a piece for a recital at the end of this program. When I sang it, there was a teacher there who approached me and told me ‘Wow, you have a real instrument there. You have a real voice for opera. You should pursue it.’ At that point, I was just kidding around. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t think that was something I would necessarily pursue as my life’s career.” While Brownlee took note of the suggestion, he entered Anderson University undecided on what kind of major he would pursue. He was leaning toward going to law school, but people — and his voice — would not leave him alone. He had talent and the people who music in his junior year and went on to Indiana University to study opera. Now Indiana University may be surrounded by cornfields, it happens to have an excellent opera program led by former and current performers. “They do six main stage operas a year and two in the summer,” Brownlee said. “That’s a total of eight a year. When I was there, I was involved in at least one opera per year — sometimes it was two — and several orchestral concerts and recitals. So I just got the chance to perform, perform and perform. Many of the faculty are former and active performers. To get that influence from them, you learn first hand how to go out and have a career. That was invaluable.” Brownlee is a plainspoken, ordinary kind of guy who enjoys fantasy football and participating in all kinds of sports. He thought he could have also become a sportscaster. And he admits that opera didn’t exactly appeal to him at first. “I thought it was a bunch of overweight foreign people singing in a language I didn’t understand,” Brownlee said with a laugh. “But I didn’t really know what opera was. I remember seeing an opera for the first time and I thought ‘Wow, this is very different than my impression.’ Yeah, I would turn the television on and they would show a scene of Broom Hilda with horns on her head and she is really overweight and you don’t know what she is singing. That’s when I thought I would change the channel. Once I realized opera is so much more than that, what attracted me to it is I think it takes a lot more capability and ability to sing it because you sing the entire time. Everything is sung and you can’t take any time off. So many elements of performing are all together collectively in an opera. With that, you feel like ‘Wow, this is just an art form at its highest.’ What whet my appetite was the first opera I saw was in English. I could really understand it. I wasn’t turned off as some people may be because I didn’t understand it. The first thing I saw was ‘The Ballad of Baby Doe.’ Seeing that in English started me off thinking opera wasn’t so far away from some of the things I’ve done before. It was an art form that had it all.” While most actors get typecast because of their physical features and looks, opera singers get typecast by the qualities of their voices. “In opera, the voice that you have is what dictates what you perform,” Brownlee said. “I’ve been doing a lot of roles by the composer Rossini. With Rossini, the characters I play are sometimes counts and princes in light comic operas. I get to play not so many serious operas where people die, although I’ve gotten the chance to do some of those things. For the most part, I like to play the young vibrant love interest that is optimistic and excited about life and love for the first time.” Like America has done for Barack Obama as he runs for president, Brownlee feels that the world of opera has opened up to African Americans beyond the Marian Andersons that came along once in a lifetime. “You turn on the television and African Americans are newscasters and analysts and not just athletes anymore,” Brownlee said. “African Americans are taking an active part in every part of society. I think opera is the same. We have the access to education. We have the access to the arts and theater like anyone else who has the exposure and a gift and we will take part in it. People are more accepting of it because we are more a part, in general, of the culture of the United States. And in Europe, it is even a little bit less because they don’t have, per se, the history of racism that the United States has had. But, in general, I think the doors are definitely open. If you look at a glass, and you talk about something being half full or half empty, I’m definitely from the camp of half full. Maybe there is an optimism there, in my eyes, but in general, I think people are being accepted and getting the opportunity to go out and do these things.” And while Brownlee has that voice, he also works hard to stay at the top of his game. While he waited for rehearsal with the Madison Symphony Orchestra that evening, Brownlee was busy working with the score for his next production in Toulouse, France next week. “You have to pace your learning,” Brownlee said. “There is an expectation that you will arrive everywhere prepared to go and perform. Even though tomorrow night I have a performance in Madison and for the next few days, I’m not just resting as much as rehearsing and preparing for the work I have to do somewhere else. You learn yourself. You learn your learning curve. You have to realize what your demands are and where you can sing because we only have one voice. If I were to sing all day, then tomorrow night when I have a performance, maybe I wouldn’t be up to snuff. I wouldn’t be up to the level I need to be at. So for me, it’s like pacing yourself, having a road map and knowing where you are going. Otherwise, you’ll run into big problems and you won’t be prepared. That’s my biggest nightmare, going somewhere and somebody sending me home. So I’m usually over-prepared. But you still have to set a good road map of where you are going and have a plan and just know yourself.” Brownlee’s voice has had a good road map of where it has wanted to go. And Brownlee has worked very hard to keep up with it. Talent does shine each and every time. Lawrence Brownlee will be performing March 7-9 as a part of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s “Two Great Works • One Historic Weekend” performance featuring Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Hoffman’s The Forty Steps. Tickets start at $15. Call 258-4141 for ticket information. |
| Lawrence Brownlee has traveled the world over singing opera |
| Madison Symphony Orchestra’s “Two Great Works” Wherever his voice leads |