Lawrence Brownlee’s Engaging Return to SFP

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee (photograph by Shervin Lainez, courtesy of SFP)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Performances (SFP) presented the third of the four recitals in its Art of Song series. The vocalist was tenor Lawrence Brownlee, returning for his third SFP appearance, following up his SFP debut in March of 2018 with a Summer Music Sessions performance in July of 2021. His San Francisco debut took place in the fall of 2016 at the War Memorial Opera House of the San Francisco Opera (SFO), where he sang the role of Ernesto in Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera Don Pasquale. His accounts of two arias from that opera showed up in his second album, Allegro io son, which was discussed on this site shortly before that SFO production began its run.

The title of last night’s program was Rising, which was the title of the album that Warner Classics released in April of 2023; and six of the recital selections were taken from that album. There was also a seventh selection, “Vocalise III” by Carlos Simon, meaning that the first half of the recital provided a generous survey of the efforts of the latest generation of young composers. By way of contrast, the program began with five songs by Joseph Marx, a leading Austrian composers during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. I am not sure If I had encountered any of Marx’ music previously; but I have to confess that he seemed to devote more attention to the piano accompaniment (given a first-rate account by Kevin Miller) than to the vocalist.

The second half of the program was the result of Brownlee’s “pairing” approach to the four most prominent opera composers of the nineteenth century (in order of appearance on the program): Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Gioachino Rossini, and Vincenzo Bellini. Each selection consisted of an art song followed by an aria. As might be guessed, the Verdi aria was “La donna è mobile” from Rigoletto; and it was the undisputed scene-stealer of the evening!

As usual, Brownlee was at the top of his game in his chemistry with the audience. This involved his spoken introductions, as well as his performances. The same can be said of his interactions with Miller. The result was an impressively diverse account of repertoire, all of which was delivered with precise attention and engaging expressiveness.