Thanks to Toronto Summer Music, many great singers have given recitals in Toronto to the delight of voice fans. 2026 has turned out to be another banner year for great singing. The Festival’s Art of the Song kicked off with the dulcet tones of Sasha Cooke, and on July 16, we had the dynamic duo of soprano Erin Morley and tenor Lawrence Brownlee. This engagement also marked the Canadian debut of Morley.
The program they brought was mostly drawn from their widely praised CD, Golden Age, that came out on the Pentatone label last year. It’s a scintillating selection of arias and duets by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Bizet and Delibes, 19th-century works that represents the golden age of bel canto opera.
Malcolm Martineau & Erin Morley at Toronto Summer Music. Photo: Lucky Tang
In addition to the singing, pianist Malcolm Martineau contributed a solo piano solo piece, Debussy’s “Clair de lune.” Another delightful surprise was a piano four hands version of the “Chanson bohème” from Carmen, with Morley joining Martineau at the keyboard. I have to say in 60+ years of attending live recitals, I don’t recall an instance where a singer participated in a piano four hands in a vocal recital!
It was an altogether delightful program, including such warhorses as Gilda’s “Caro nome” and the Duke’s “Ella mi fu rapita!” from Verdi’s Rigoletto. A few were less familiar, such as the duets “Ils verront si je mens!” from Bizet’s rarely performed La jolie fille de Perth and “D’où viens-tu? … C’est le Dieu de la jeunesse” from Delibes’ Lakmé. These selections really showed off the strengths of the two voices. Morley’s pure, silvery timbre, with its exquisite mezza voce and high piano were in glorious display. The high E at the end of the Bell Song from Lakmé was thrilling.
Lawrence Brownlee & Erin Morley at Toronto Summer Music. Photo: Lucky Tang
Morley had an excellent partner in Brownlee, whose ringing lyric tenor was a pleasure. His “Je crois entendre encore” from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers was beautifully sung. If I were to nitpick, I would have liked a bit more mezza voce approach to this piece, since there’s no orchestra, only piano, and Malcolm Martineau was the ideal collaborative pianist, very careful not to cover the singers. In any case, the audience loved them and gave them huge ovations. We were rewarded with the Norina-Ernesto duet from Don Pasquale as an encore, sending everyone home happy.
Read La Scena Musicale’s exclusive interview with our summer cover artist Erin Morley here. For more on Toronto Summer Music, visit www.torontosummermusic.com
