Young Elizabeth Futral’s Zerbinetta is vivacious and a bit glamorous!

THE SONGBIRD: Elizabeth Futral was born in North Carolina in 1963, but grew up in Louisiana. She studied with the legendary Virginia Zeani and was a winner in the national Met Auditions. Her first big splash was as Lakmé in the New York City Opera production in 1994. I was living in NYC at the time, but sadly missed it. I did get to see her live in recital at the small Carnegie Hall venue in 1995. Futral has had a very active and adventurous career in opera houses and concert halls around the world. Her Met debut was Lucia in 1999. She has sung nearly all of the standard lyric-coloratura roles, as well as been in revivals of uncommon works (Rossini's "Matilde di Shabran," Meyerbeer's "L'etoile du nord," Halévy's "Le Juive," Berlioz's "Benvenuti Cellini") and premiered new works (Dun's "The First Emperor" at the Met, Previn's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Brief Encounter," Laitman’s "Scarlett Letter," and Gordon's "Twenty-Seven" as Alice B. Toklas).
THE MUSIC: Richard Strauss's opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" premiered twice. The first was in 1912 in Stuttgart where it was conceived as a short opera to accompany a new adaption of Moliere's play, "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme." This version was performed in other cities over the next year (Zurich, Munich, Prague, and London), but the play/opera hybrid concept proved ineffective (and way too long at over six hours). Working with his librettist/partner Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss refashioned the opera as a stand-alone work with a newly added prologue, which premiered to success in Vienna in 1916. This version of the opera was quickly embraced by critics, artists, and the public -- it has since been recorded commercially many times and is performed regularly around the world. Zerbinetta's grand aria "Grossmächtige Prinzessin" is arguably the most daunting coloratura showpiece ever written. It's not just long at about 12 minutes; it doesn't merely contain a full armada of coloratura vocal acrobatics (trills, cadenzas, scales, filigree, high notes, wide leaps, and so on); it's not just the freewheeling harmonic structures -- no, this scene demands a level of virtuosic musicianship and theatrical flair that is simply unmatched. Zerbinetta is a coloratura soubrette on steroids! In this scene and role, Strauss invented an entirely new musical language to exploit the unique glories of the coloratura soprano voice. He revisited this proprietary mode of highly gymnastic and chromatic vocalism a few other times afterwards: in the art song "Amor" (1918), with Fiakermilli in "Arabella" (1933), and for Aminta in "Die schweigsame Frau" (1935).

[@wendyhill276]

All she sang she did to perfection!

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

Brava!

[@DavidTucker-x5y]

So beautiful voice and excellent coloratura 🎉❤

[@davidhansel4198]

Does anyone know what she's doing now? Still singing? Teaching? Wonderful singer!

[@annavladi5272]

She is teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. My daughter is in her voice studio. Professor Futral is a terrific teacher, very much loved by her students.

[@tinaomalley7301]

She is now an excellent teacher! I'm a student in her voice studio at Peabody Conservatory!