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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.

"Baby Doe is an interesting character and she is very gratifying to sing. Douglas Moore gave the character a nice progression to make through the opera. Obviously, she had one historically but, in the opera, she grows musically too, which I didn't realize when I first looked at the role. There's a lot of lovely, tuneful music, and some of it is rather sentimental, but I think it's deeper than that. Her musical language changes throughout the show and becomes more complex and interesting, and it deepens as she does. I have enjoyed discovering that.

"She's a bit flighty in the beginning -- she's immature and idealistic, which is natural for a young person. But, I like the fact that she grows up in the piece and figures out what she believes in. As misguided as that might be at times, she does become a mature, committed person. I have some ideas about her, but because the production was done already [in San Francisco], I know I will be tailored to fit it, which is fine. I know [director] Colin Graham well and I know he will give me as much liberty as I need to make it work for me. We'll etch it out together."

We pointed out to Elizabeth that she was taking on two of Beverly Sills' most famous roles, back-to-back. "I'm definitely a fan of Beverly's. Some of my earliest opera recordings were hers. I have been trying to save my voice for Cleopatra and so to beat this into my brain, I've listened to her Baby Doe recording quite a lot. I admire what she does with the role on that recording. It's quite exquisite and a wonderful feat. I thought that it would be fun to talk to her about the role and get her feelings about the opera. I'd love to have her input from having worked with Dr. Moore and to know about some of the choices she made on the recording, which differ from the score. There are a couple of alternate high things she did, the high "D" in the Willow aria for example, which I'm sure were her ideas, and I'm curious to know what he thought, if he was supportive of her changes."

Next season, Elizabeth with play Curley's Wife in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men in Houston. The performances will be recorded and videotaped. "It will be the second Carlisle Floyd opera I've sung. I sang Susannah with a reduced orchestra when I was in college and I loved it! After I get Baby Doe up and running, this will be the next thing I tackle. I have listened to the piece and I think it is a great, great work. I'm really looking forward to being involved in this project."

The summer finds Elizabeth singing with the Munich Festival (in Munich and on tour in Japan) as Susannah in The Marriage of Figaro and Nanetta in Falstaff. Then, she joins Bruce Ford and Jennifer Larmore for a recording of a rarity for Opera Rara, Carlo di Borgogna by Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867). Dallas will see her Lucia next season and beyond that, she looks forward to her first Constanza in The Abduction from the Seraglio (New York Philharmonic and Sir Colin Davis) and her first Daughter of Regiment (Vancouver).

It's always interesting to know if singers log onto the Internet to check out opera newsgroups and chat rooms. "Yes, I go on the Internet, but I don't pay attention to opera stuff. There's a lot out there, almost too much. My husband was on one of those lists and read me some of the opinions about my singing, some of which were wonderful, and others horrible. It's the same thing I feel about reading reviews - I don't. I'd rather keep myself at arms' length."

In a career already full of high points, we wondered what experiences Ms. Futral had found particularly rewarding. "Not to be cliché or obvious, but Violetta [in Verdi's La Traviata] was a milestone and a real cathartic experience. I sang it last year in Costa Mesa with Opera Pacific. I had always been afraid of it and had avoided it until that point, because it had been interpreted by so many wonderful singers. But I felt I was ready to try it. I wasn't sure I could do it justice and I don't know if I did [we heard she was wonderful], but the important part was that it was very meaningful to me to sing. I've loved that music for a long time and to be able to give it a try was very special. It's hard to put words to it. I'm really happy that I was finally able to give it a shot, and I hope to do it again. I felt like a grownup singer.

"At this point, my career is going better than I had ever imagined. I'm beginning to realize a lot of dreams I had when I was starting out ten years ago. Cleopatra has been a dream role for me, so doing it now and loving it so much is very fulfilling. Manon is also in the future and I'm excited about that. I coached it when I was in the apprentice program in Chicago and I've always wanted to do it.

"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!