Christine Brewer Talks About Doing Musical Theater For The First Time

The soprano leads a chorus of nuns in The Sound of Music. (Photo: Todd Rosenberg/BWW)

"Christine Brewer usually goes several days between performances. As a dramatic soprano who specializes in the taxing roles of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, rest is important to conserve her voice and her strength. Not this time. This time, as the Abbess in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music at Lyric Opera of Chicago, she’s on a musical theater schedule of eight performances a week, including just one day off and two days with two shows, a matinee and an evening performance. 'This is an unusual schedule for me,' the Lebanon, Illinois-based singer said in a telephone interview last week. 'I’ve never done a musical theater piece before. I don’t sing that much (in the show), but when I do, it’s big guns. I'm eating a lot of chicken soup and taking my vitamins.'....Brewer worked on her dialogue in St. Louis with her voice teacher, Christine Armistead, and with director Mark Bruni, 'and then it was Jenn [Gambatese]. She'd say, 'Let’s just run the lines.' We’ve developed a really nice relationship on and off stage. Words are so important in singing, and this is really giving me a chance to bring that to my mind in a different way.' She's connected with others in the cast, too. 'When you’re in an intimate, very emotional preparation and performance, it’s like family,' Brewer said. 'I knew (soprano) Elizabeth (Futral, who plays Elsa), and some of the women from the chorus, and that was it. The first days were a little tense; the musical theater people had never worked in an opera house, with such a big space to rehearse in, such a big stage, and a full orchestra.' They had some trouble adjusting to the idea that singers regularly fill that giant auditorium with sound with no amplification....In her free time, Brewer is working on her music for Dialogues of the Carmelites at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. 'I'm feeling holy,' she joked, with back-to-back nun roles." [Source] A picture of Elizabeth Futral, as Elsa, is after the jump.

Elizabeth Futral Answers Questions Before Making Portland Debut

"How did you get involved in opera? I started piano lessons when I was five, and I always loved music. My mom was a classically trained pianist and flutist, and my dad was a minister. She gave me a lot of the classics and he gave me his stage presence. He also has a beautiful natural singing voice. I grew up in Louisiana near New Orleans. I ended up going to a small Baptist university in Alabama…and had a wonderful mentor, my first voice teacher, Eleanor Owsley, who was the one who really encouraged me. She had the vision for me…she’s been a great friend over all these years. Then I went to Indiana University in Bloomington to graduate school, which is the big opera factory of the Midwest. It’s a huge music school and they have a really big opera program. From there, I went to Chicago’s Young Artists Program, and afterwards I just stayed there. I kind of kept going through the doors that were open to me, and they luckily were opened, and I had good activities along the way. I’m very fortunate." [Source] Read the full interview by clicking here.

Christopher Maltman Bares All In Don Juan Film

Posted today on Barihunks and Parterre, the trailer for Kasper Holten's film version of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni has hit the internet and it has plenty of the lead man. The Danish film is sung in English and is simply called Juan. and has a 90-minute run time. The cast includes Christopher Maltman, Mikhail Petrenko, Maria Bengtsson, Elizabeth Futral, Katija Dragojevic, Audun Iversen and Peter Lohdahl. There is even a cameo by Plácido Domingo. The synopsis, according to the IMDB: "The successful artist and playboy Juan is a notorious seducer of women, through his ability to be just what a woman dreams of: Charming, charismatic, strong, sensitive, sexual. Driven by a restless urge to conquer new women, use them, and throw them away, he has hired his friend Leporello to help create a masterpiece: A filmed database of all the women whose dreams Juan has shattered. We follow Juan and Leporello through 24 compressed hours. Juan seduces the young upper-class girl Anna, but ends up accidentally killing her father, a powerful police commissioner. The two friends run away, but Juan's constant need to seduce new women keeps interrupting their flight.

As the police gains in on them, Juan also steals the young bride Zerlina from her groom Masetto, and soon a feverish manhunt is on for Juan." What makes the film unique, besides the nudity, is the singers are recorded live eliminating the lip-synching that gives many opera-to-celluloid ventures a faux reality. The film was released January 9, 2010. Trailer after the jump. [Source, Source]

Elizabeth Futral Conquers Offenbach in Florida

Futral as Olympia

"The soprano Elizabeth Futral’s virtuoso performance as a coloratura-spinning fembot Olympia was the highlight of a largely successful production of Offenbach’s story of a young poet’s frustrated search for romantic love. Futral, singing all four roles for the first time in her career, succeeded triumphantly. Wearing a 50-pound robot costume, she brought pin-point accuracy to Olympia’s ridiculously difficult, mechanical coloratura parody. The soprano also

Spoleto Festival Commemorates Menotti Centenary

The two-week performing arts blitz will feature the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Emilie with soprano Elizabeth Futral, a North Carolina native who has been lauded for her refined performances with prestigious companies such as the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera, in the lead.

Then there’s The Magic Flute, Mozart’s symbolism-laden opera, which will be conducted by Steven Sloane, Spoleto’s former music director.

But the sentimental favorite to garner the most robust applause is The Medium, Gian Carlo