tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. today a conversation with lawrence roundly. he is about to make his broadway debut in mozart's "the magic flute." we are glad you joined us. an interview with lawrence brownlee coming up right now. ♪

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. -- lawrence brownlee possesses one of those rare opera voices. he sings in one of those difficult high registers that you lose so many people. soughtne of the most after singers. he has a cd out that pays tribute to his gospel roots. he first started singing in church. the cd is called spiritual sketches.

let's take a look at his performance at the metropolitan opera house in new york city. ♪ ♪ tavis: oh, my. you're sounding good, brother. you're sounding good. i don't

get the chance to welcome often not only an amazing artist but one who also went to a great school. i get a chance to be in this moment for just a second with an indiana graduate and a fellow fraternity brother. this fraternity is all about achievement, and you have done that. >> i consider myself blessed. it was great to have gone to indiana. enjoying my life right now. >> i just saw joshua bail, another graduate. they have a wonderful music row graham. how did you end up there? >> i did undergraduate at this curveball. , and my teacher

said, why don't you look at graduate school. he didn't want me to go to indiana. a was only one that had position left for classical music. i went there and fell in love with campus right away. end up in did you music when you were considering law? represent yourld self. that may not have been the worst route to go, but they seem so different, law and opera. >> i am one of six kids. be one ofwant to those people wearing suits. i had four sisters. i had to get myself out of tickles a lot of the time. i was always fascinated i the law. people said, i think you can contribute to the world of

classical music, so in the end i said, if this doesn't work i can always go to graduate school and do. i got some great opportunities. i love music. i didn't know exactly what opera was. abel introduced it to me properly, and i fell in love with it right away. i have friends who are lawyers. i respect what they do. that's not me. tavis: when you were introduced to opera properly, what was it about what you were hearing that you fell in love with, particularly given your background. >> the first opera i ever saw i was in. that works. >> you think about people on tv and everybody thinks about the lady with the worn on her heads, and you are like, i don't want to see this anymore. when i was talking about eating properly introduced, i didn't

know about sitting in an opera and understanding what was going on. saws in an opera before i one. that was my proper introduction where he sat on the seat in experienced opera as it is later. i thought, this is fantastic. i didn't know. growing up in the pentecostal church i knew who they were, but i didn't know who the great singers were. how did you make the transition? was it a difficult transition? did you come with relative ease? anythingly more than else i think ruffini. -- rossinni. stevie artists like

wonder who use their voices doing runs and melisma is. it was a transition. i always say your voice is your voice, and you have to use it. voice with proper technique is something i learned. my teacher told me i had a national -- natural facility to play classical music. people would say, you have easy high notes, and the tone is one that is proper. >> there are two things that come to mind. might that your voice have lent yourself to singing opera, particularly rossinni, and sometimes the road less traveled there is a reason for that. it is a difficult road. mentioned the names of a lot

of artists we admire and know. you could have gone that route. why go the operatic road less traveled? learn propero technique. i have had some really good teachers who did not manufacture. they taught me singing is a natural extension of singing, so with that copper technique gives you the opportunity to use your voice in an efficient way. i applied the techniques and found it was right for me. people will say, how did you become what you are today, and someone said to me a long time ago a lot of times your career finds you out. were bornomething you to do. when i got to opera and classical music i thought, this is something that is right for me. when i go back to church, my

parents and other people want to hear me try gospel. it's a part of who i am, but i feel like i am at home and classical music. earlier, iour point say this respectfully, but you don't have the biggest voice. does that mean you won't be singing a lot of puccini? >> the natural makeup of what you are is what you do. i am 5'6". i am not going to play center in the nba, just like i won't be singing puccini. i don't have that voice, but the gifts i do have, the arena of what i do is what i should be singing. there are a lot of people who tell me they covet the instrument i have, and that's a compliment to me. i'm grateful for what i have. i mentioned earlier that

we went to the same school. although you sing much better than i do. >> i don't know about that. tavis: we went to the same school. fraternity.he same we both went to a pentecostal church. my mother is watching right now. i know this experience all too well. i grew up in a family of not six, but 10. there is a lot in common here. because we have so much in common i understand the judgment people can place upon you when you come out of a church sortround and you make any of switched to secular or classical, anything other than what you were raised in, so how did you deal with what i assume was judgment if not pushback from certain people?

people didn't realize what classical music is. growing up in the church, i was part of a family that went to church not just on sundays. we went to church many days a week. i didn't go to the prom. we didn't go to the movies. they didn't want me to play sports. i am appreciative of the training and background i had. i think my parents and pastor for teaching me what i have parents but i think my have appreciation of what classical music is. if you think about the history of classical music, it was in the church. they told him, all these people wrote masses for the church, so i was thought this was something that was not secular. it was something that grew out of the church and is still part of the church. church, ifear in the

you look back, this is what haydn wrote or handel. yes you can use it in something that is not giving god praise, and you can use your life to give praise. >> you have to sing handel's messiah. other than that you are going to hell. i have heard that a few times in my life. your l.a.e back to operatic debut in a moment here, but tell me about this new cd. >> the cd came together. myself and the gentlemen had a similar background having been to church but having known different styles of music. i worked in theme parks. of course classical music. all of those are a part of who i am as a person, so what we

wanted to do was put something together that people could appreciate from all walks of life, whatever type of music you like. there are a lot of people who turned their nose up at classical, and there are people who turned their nose up to anything that is not classical. we wanted to combine these things together. feltt this together and that as a black singer they said, you shouldn't do something that is black because you will be paid as a black singer, or you will just sing spirituals. i got to the point where i established myself as a serious singer and felt i could take a chance. this is everything put together to kind of show all the things that influenced me as a musician. tavis: i was in a conversation the other day with some friends

of mine. my mother and i had this conversation. having grown up in that church experience and many of these songs on the cd, and i was actually a choir director. i was the choir director for the junior choir. music. yet i was saying to my mom the other day that some of the songs i taught the , at this agesing in my life the lyrical content of these songs hit me in a different way than they did. lifeyou have lived your these songs take on different meaning. he wrote 40 years ago mean something different now than it did when they wrote it many years ago. that's a long way of getting to

a simple question, which is are there a couple of songs on this project could really hit you in a deep way that didn't when you growing up?kid >> yes, i think life experiences you can apply something to where you are in your life at that point, so yes, having lived my life, and there is a song that means a lot to me. i have two children. i have a son caleb who was recently diagnosed as being autistic. of course i want angels to watch over my son who is suffering from this disease we call autism. a couplefered that in venues. people have related to me and the special way because people are dealing with all kinds of

ailments. that message can really say something. message is one i grew up with. that meant a lot to me. now that i have gone all over the world and seen the things i have seen, yes, they mean a lot to me. the reason i want to present these songs is these are songs that shaped who i am as a person. i didn'tput anything think was applicable to where i am as a person. more about your journey. it's obvious to your fans and .our parents back to that notion of the road less traveled, this opera route has never been easy. stories, scars, have beenlso all

successful, but they have a different kind of journey. tell me what it is like to be a black male. >> many of those people were women. been long time there had women that were successful. i can name many. much fewer men have been successful. of course.n myself being a tenor, which i think 95% of the time is the romantic interest. a black male playing opposite a caucasian. in all my years of being on stage there has only been once i have been opposite someone of color, a black girl. in the l.a. opera, she is african-american as well, so this is the first time i have

been cast opposite someone who is african-american. it has not been easy. people told me early on i probably wouldn't be successful. i am 5'6". i am not that tall. i did a competition, and there as an agent who said to friend of mine, there was a guy who came on stage who was this tall. i think i am a little taller. he came onstage, and the first thing i said is what is this gentleman going to do. why is he here. he opened his mouth, and people were blown away. he won't have a career. he may do some things that were off the beaten path. didn't know they were friends. i use that as motivation to say, you can say what you want about me, but i am here because i

don't think anything comes from just happening. my career and those people who were naysayers, i was talking to my manager the other day. every major theater around the world i have gotten a chance to perform with on the world's greatest stages. that is more to speak the lessons i have learned, to not feel discrimination can determine he. i feel if i always worry about the things i can control, i am in the drivers seat. people say, everybody isn't going to love you, and that's fine. if i can really invest in how i prepare my work, that is going to give me the tools to be successful in what i do. tavis: there are a couple of things that you raise that

strike me as obstacles. one we just talked about, which is your race. you have been straightforward in mentioning your height. you are sitting down, but you are 5'6". asked this question in all the years i have been broadcasting, but i wonder if you could say a few words about how you have navigated moving through the world as a 5'6" mail. i am asking that all jokes aside because there are a lot of men of the world who are of short stature, and it hasn't stopped them. it didn't stop prince. >> napoleon. >> he ain't the best example. it hasn't stopped you. say a word to me about how you the expectations

or less than expectations people have of you because of your stature. say my perceived limitations from what other their opinion,s and i have to say the best example i have of hearing a man my5'6" african-american is father is an example. he is also 5'6". my mother is four foot 10. tavis: you didn't have a chance at six feet. >> growing up and seeing my person i havethe had the most respect for as a man and seeing him respected by so many, and he never felt like he was limited by anything. when he was in the army there talking, and guys

they said they would do it as well. and my father said, i am going to do it as well. the only50 plus guys two that finished were the guy that said it and my dad because he felt there was nothing that could stop him from doing the things he wanted to do. i am definitely a half full guy as opposed to half empty. i never felt like there was anything i couldn't do. yes, 5'6". so what? there are people that are better than me, but i am going to be better at something else. i'm not going to use this a hindrance to keep me from being successful. of who i am.ud i am a representation of my family, my race, my fraternity, of all that i am, and it's important for me to know there is not a hindrance i can apply

to my life to say i am not going to be successful. it starts, it gives you the input to be successful. my dad is the greatest example. that's a great story. i'm anxious to come see you in "the magic flute." tell me about your l.a. opera debut. >> it's great to be here in l.a. i did something with the symphony a while back, but hearing here, it is one of the most important places in the world. i tell people, if you want to see opera for the first time, they say, i cannot see fog or somethinggner in latin. this is a perfect chance because it incorporates so many things we in social media use.

example, there is a lot of special effects. it's a great orchestra, great chorus. it's a great company, so when you put those elements together with seeing wings people never thought they would see on the opera stage, people are young, fun,ll energetic fingers. it's a great concept. i think people will be amazed when they come see this concert. can get a ticket. don't leave me hanging on that. >> we will make that happen. tavis: they have already added one or two extra dates. the tickets went so fast. if you are in the southern california area and you can get a ticket to see "the magic flute" at the l.a. opera you will want to see it starring lawrence brownlee. he has a new cd out called

"spiritual sketches." you will want to add that to your collection as well. is today, all 5'6" of him. >> i might have exaggerated. you stay seated. congratulation. that's it for tonight. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with winning actor jeffrey wright about his role in the new hunger games. that's next time. we will see you then. ♪

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs.

(♪ theme music ) (♪) matt elmore: welcome to imagemakers a weekly showcase featuring the best short films from around the world. stay tuned and enjoy the filmmakers of tomorrow today on imagemakers. imagemakers is made possible in part by a grant from: celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image. and by the: (shaking a paint can) (children playing)