directory  |  sites  |  press        Submit Site  |  Submit Press Release

Elizabeth Futral
From Cleopatra to Baby DoeTabor

By Robert Wilder Blue

Elizabeth Futral, in the form of Cleopatra in Handel's Julius Caesar, had just conquered Los Angeles when USOperaWeb spoke to her. "I love Handel," she told us. "I would sing Handel all year long if I were asked." (The production in question required her to perform nude the scene in which Cleopatra seduces Caesar, a fact we point out not for its prurient value, but to show what opera singers are often required to do these days.) In recent seasons, Ms. Futral has earned raves around the world for her performances in Lucia di Lammermoor (title role), Rigoletto (Gilda) and The Marriage of Figaro (Susannah). Americans are perhaps most familiar with Ms. Futral for creating the role of Stella in the world premiere of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at San Francisco Opera, performances which were memorialized on compact disk, videotape and DVD.

Where did it all begin for Elizabeth Futral? "I was born in North Carolina but moved to Louisiana when I was two, across the lake from New Orleans. My father is a southern Baptist minister and my mother used to be an English teacher. She is also a very talented, classically trained pianist and flutist, although she was never a professional player. I started studying piano when I was young and sang in school and church, of course. I always loved to sing. Eventually, I went to Samford University in Alabama, thinking I would study music education. I didn't really know that it would be possible to make a living singing. But I learned quickly that I didn't want to be an educator, and I had a lot of encouragement from my first voice teacher at Samford to pursue a singing career. So I sort of launched into it not really knowing what I was getting into, which was probably a good thing. I received a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from Samford and went on to Indiana University where I studied with Virginia Zeani. Indiana is a huge music school with lots of competition. They have a big opera program and I learned a lot about the opera world and what the business might be like when I got out. After that, I spent two years in the Chicago Lyric Opera apprentice program and from that point, my singing career started and I have been at it ever since."

Elizabeth Futral as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. Photo by Marty Sohl, courtesty of San Francisco Opera

Ms. Futral was invited to join the cast of A Streetcar Named Desire shortly after the commission was announced. "I immediately said yes. It sounded like a great project and indeed it was. Of course I knew it came with lots of history and lots of baggage, if you will, because people have definite ideas about all of those characters. But, from the beginning I was very optimistic about it and looked forward to the challenge.

"After I had been contracted for Streetcar, I went to see a stage production in London, with Jessica Lange as Blanche, and it was nice to see a fresh perspective. Of course, I had seen the Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando film. But, I didn't really want to refer back to that, I felt I needed to find Stella myself.

"It was really wonderful to get to do Streetcar again in San Diego and New Orleans. In San Francisco, we had a rather short rehearsal period for a brand new piece, not to mention a difficult one, from both a dramatic and musical standpoint. We were really under the gun there and we were so worried about everything. So, the second and third times around, I knew the music, of course, and it was a real treat to be able to delve deeper into my character and to concentrate on going further with the drama. In the San Diego and New Orleans productions, I had different colleagues in the other roles, and the wonderful thing to me was that the piece held up very well with other interpreters. You don't always know if that is going to happen - if it worked the first time only because Renée Fleming was Blanche and Rodney Gilfry was Stanley. But it did hold up well and that was very affirming to me. I think it is a great piece. I haven't seen the video - not because I'm trying to avoid it, it just didn't happen. But my husband saw it and he thought it worked wonderfully well on television."

In April, Ms. Futral will fulfill another aspiration by taking on the title role in Douglas Moore's opera about 19th century Colorado, The Ballad of Baby Doe. "My first encounter with Baby Doe was at Indiana when I was working with Miss Zeani; I worked on several of the arias with her. I thought one day I would like to do it, but it never came up before this. When New York City Opera approached me, there was no hesitation - I was free and I wanted to do it and I thought it would be a good role to return to City Opera to do. It is so completely different from Handel, of course, and it's interesting to be working on the two in tandem.

"I have had opportunities to work with wonderful conductors who have helped me become a better musician and that is something I hoped would happen. It's very enriching to gain something from those I'm working with. It's a real bonus.

"I'm in a wonderful marriage now and I feel very lucky to have found the right partner. I have a great voice teacher and I feel like my singing is getting better and better and that's something I hope will continue to the end of my career. I am one of those singers who doesn't feel like you ever really arrive. There are always things to improve upon. The voice is always changing as you mature and my goal is to become a better singer every time I walk on the stage. That is what keeps me excited and involved and challenged. I feel very privileged to be doing something I love so much and earning a living doing it. It's amazing to me!"

Anyone who has the opportunity to hear one of Elizabeth's performances won't be at all amazed!