More visible now, soprano Futral returns

CHAPEL HILL -- When opera soprano Elizabeth Futral appears Friday in Long Leaf Opera's production of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Orpheus and Euridice," she will be returning to her home state with an even higher profile than when she last visited.

By the time of that 2000 Greensboro recital, Futral, a Smithfield native, had made her Metropolitan Opera debut and had been seen on PBS in Andre Previn's "A Streetcar Named Desire." Last year, several hundred thousand people saw her live in movie theaters across the country (including in Raleigh) in the Met's hi-def transmission of Tan Dun's "The First Emperor," starring Placido Domingo.

Futral's glowing reviews for that performance echoed those she received for the 2005 "Orpheus" at Lincoln Center, garnering additional accolades for her physical performance on the shoulders of dancers and writhing on the floor.

The production's range of vocal, instrumental and choreographic elements won an Obie (off-Broadway's equivalent to a Tony).

It was a piece that noted clarinetist Todd Palmer had commissioned. At the time, Gordon's partner was dying, so the composer turned the commission into a farewell tribute.

Gordon found a universal subject in the myth of Orpheus, who plays such sad songs at the death of his wife, Euridice, that the gods weep, allowing her to return to life if Orpheus does not look at her on the way back from the underworld. Orpheus' love is too great: He fails to keep the promise, and he loses her again.

Futral missed out on the work's first performance.

"Ricky and I met in my early days in New York around 1992, the beginning of a wonderful musical and personal relationship," she recalled in a recent phone interview from her home near Roanoke, Va. "He said that he had my voice in mind when he composed 'Orpheus,' but unfortunately, I was not available for that first version."

Luckily, Futral was available when the Lincoln Center American Songbook series asked Gordon to revive the work.

He expanded "Orpheus" into a 70-minute piece with costumes and sets, casting Palmer as Orpheus and Futral as Euridice and narrator. He also added choreography for eight dancers by modern dance luminary Doug Varone (whose company appears here at the American Dance Festival next month).

Futral said she was thrilled to perform a work she so admires.

"The simplicity and spareness really distill the story down to a pure form, told in a simple, uncomplicated way," she said. "It has so much immediacy and meaning and is very well-crafted."

She says audiences respond to the work's poetry and emotion, as well as its unusual structure.

"It's such an unusual thing for a singer, and even more so for an instrumentalist, to move and dance through a whole piece," she said. "I think it is all the more powerful because of that."

The Long Leaf production is a coup for the company, as it features not only Futral but also Palmer and the Varone dancers, repeating the original Lincoln Center version with some modification for UNC's Memorial Hall. Only the pianist is new: recording artist Simon Mulligan, a frequent accompanist for violinist Joshua Bell.

Long Leaf's executive director Jim Schaeffer credits America's premier opera composer, Jake Heggie, with making this "Orpheus" possible. Heggie so enjoyed his time here last year with the production of his "At the Statue of Venus," he recommended Long Leaf to Gordon.

These performances come just as Gordon is riding a wave of success from his recent full-length opera, "The Grapes of Wrath," and a commission from the Met.