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.

Kelly Kaduce Talks Baby and "Butterfly" in Portland

"Making predictions about musical performances is a fool's errand, as much as handicapping presidential primaries or the Super Bowl. But it's safe to say that Portland Opera's Madame Butterfly, which opens Friday night at Keller Auditorium, promises greatness, not least because it features one of the most appealing and acclaimed singers the company has brought in recent years. A winner of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, rising star soprano Kelly Kaduce made her Portland Opera debut two seasons ago as Mimi in La Bohème, her signature role. 'It was Kelly Kaduce, who sang Mimi with gorgeous, open lyricism, who made the magic happen,' wrote The Oregonian's David Stabler, echoing the buzz around the performance. It's easy enough to point to good reviews; anyone singing at Kaduce's level with a halfway decent publicist can produce loads of them. But her press is noteworthy for the effusive praise she inspires even while performing two of the most well-worn roles in opera -- Mimi and Cio-Cio San, the title role of Butterfly -- and especially for critics' unanimity over finer points of her vocal beauty and control, the nuances of her acting and the strength she brings to characters distinguished principally by their vulnerability. Kaduce returns to Portland 10 months after having her first child. In a conversation last week in which she was as bright and focused as her high register, she mentioned how the physical experience of pregnancy and motherhood affected her vocally. 'Certainly I felt some changes,' she said, adding with a laugh that 'the support comes so much more easily when your abdomen is distended.' After taking four months off around the time of the birth, she said she is still rebuilding her stamina but feels that her voice has gained some fullness." [Source]

David Pittsinger is Willing to Take the Risk on Every Performance

Pittsinger as Almaviva
(Photo: Cory Weaver/Portland Opera)

Bass-baritone David Pittsinger is currently singing the role of Count Almaviva in the Portland Opera production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. He gives an interview to David Stabler of The Oregonian in which he reveals how Broadway performances have helped him in opera: "Pittsinger, 48, lives in Connecticut with his wife and twin son and daughter. He has sung innumerable counts, as well as Figaros, but he's also a cross-singer to Broadway, having sung Emil de Becque in Lincoln Center Theater's celebrated revival of South Pacific, and in Portland on a national tour of the show last year. He loves Broadway's challenges, which are different from opera's, beginning with singing eight shows a week. Talk about risk: Last year, he pulled off something no other singer had done. On a Saturday afternoon, he sang de Becque in the Vivian Beaumont Theater, then walked next door to the Metropolitan Opera, where,

David as Emil de Becque in
Lincoln Center's South Pacific.

that night, he sang the role of the ghost in Hamlet. It was believed to be the first time a performer starred in a Broadway show and an opera in the same day, according to The New York Times. 'I can't begin to explain the honor and gratitude for being on two stages in one day,' he says. A comment from stage director Tito Capobianco helped. Capobianco worked with Pittsinger at Yale University and also has worked frequently with singers in Portland State University's opera program. Manage your fear, the director told him. 'If you fear the fear, it will be more the rule than the exception.' Before adding Broadway roles, Pittsinger used to hold back, vocally, to protect his voice. 'I never saved my voice in South Pacific. I invested everything every time onstage. I didn't feel like I was lying anymore. I became a truthful actor.' Another comment, from Tony-winning choreographer Tommy Tune, gave him more perspective. 'We live for long runs because every night, you have another chance to take another chance.'" [Source]

Family man: David Pittsinger with wife, soprano Patricia Schuman, and twins.