The Stage

Lawrence Folley

Published Thursday 12 April 2007 at 13:25 by Laura Folley

South African baritone Lawrence Folley had a long and distinguished career on the stage, appearing in opera, operetta, musicals and concert platforms around the world.

Born in Benoni in on December 6, 1928, Lawrence studied and sang with various local groups before moving to London in 1953 with his first wife Marie, a popular local violinist. In London he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Morley College, where he sang for Joan Cross, who offered him a scholarship to the London Opera School.

In 1957 he turned professional and after completing a UK tour of Lilac Time, he joined the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company. He soon went on to become a principal baritone through roles such as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, the Father in Hansel & Gretel, Valentine in Faust, Agamemnon in La Belle H√©l√®ne, Leander in The Love of Three Oranges and Ramiro in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole. Many of these productions were broadcast on BBC Radio and Television. He also played Sam in Ledlanet Nights’ UK premier of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and performed in Lennox Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement.

In 1967 Lawrence returned to South Africa with his wife and three daughters, where he became one of the country’s first full-time professional opera singers. He rapidly established himself as a leading baritone of Italian repertoire and achieved particular acclaim in the Verdi roles, portraying Macbeth, Nabucco, Rigoletto, Count de Luna, Giorgio Germont, Simone Boccanegra, Renato, Rodrigo, Amonasro, Iago and Falstaff.

His repertoire embraced Puccini’s Scarpia, Michele, Marcello and Sharpless; Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva; Donizetti’s Enrico and Dr Malatesta; as well as the Barber of Seville, Jokanaan in Salome and Balstrode in Peter Grimes.

Over the course of his career, Lawrence forged some powerful stage partnerships. In Cape Town he sang Jokanaan to Leone Rysanek’s final performances as Salome. He also played Scarpia to her final Tosca. His performances opposite Marita Napier in Macbeth and Nabucco were also highly acclaimed.

He had great camaraderie with Giovanni Gibin and Andre Turp as ‘brothers in arms’ in various productions of Don Carlos and La Forza del Destino. Lawrence was particularly fond of these works and felt privileged to have had a close working relationship with Maestro Franco Ferraris, under whose baton he sang these roles and many others. In numerous productions Lawrence held his own as the only South African in a cast of international luminaries. He is widely regarded as having been the greatest single inspiration to generations of young South African singers who went on to become professionals themselves.

Lawrence also demonstrated a flair for musicals and operettas. He starred as Hajj in Kismet, Johann Strauss Snr in The Great Waltz, Fred Graham in Kiss me Kate, Emile in South Pacific, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Danilo in The Merry Widow, and Paquillo in La Perichole. In 1986, his unforgettable performance as Don Quixote in The Man of La Mancha marked the Cape Performing Arts Board’s celebration of Lawrence’s 30 years as a singer.

He won the Nederburg Opera prize five times, and the coveted Artes Award. He was voted South Africa’s most popular male opera singer in a 1988 opinion poll conducted by the arts magazine Scenaria - an endorsement of the respect and affection he commanded, both with his audiences and colleagues.

In 1993 Lawrence retired from the stage and moved back to the UK to be near his three daughters. He enjoyed travelling around the world with his son-in-law tenor, John Treleaven. In 1998 Marie died in Scotland and in October 2001 Lawrence married the South African theatre director, Jacky Vermaas. They settled in the Scottish village of Kilmacolm. After a long battle with skin cancer, Lawrence died in Greenock, Scotland, on January 14, aged 78.