Bel Canto Star Lawrence Brownlee Commissioned A New Song Cycle To Fit Modern Reality

The winner of 2017’s male singer of the year at the International Opera awards says, “You can’t blind-cast with opera. No one has ever turned me down for a part and said ‘Because he’s black’ or even ‘Because he’s small and black!’ but there’s a code I’ve come to understand – ‘We have a different idea for the role’ is a common one. Change is slow, across the classical world.”