Elizabeth Futral - Rossini: MATILDE DI SHABRAN, Rondo finale, Pesaro 1996, High Eb

THE SONGBIRD: Futral was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Louisiana. She studied with the legendary Virginia Zeani and was a winner in the national Met Auditions in 1991. 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 mostly forgotten works (Rossini's "Matilde di Shabran," Meyerbeer's "L'etoile du nord," Halévy's "Le Juive") 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: Rossini's "Matilde di Shabran" was first performed in Rome in 1821, and there are two other authorized versions of the work as Rossini revised it soon after for productions in Naples and Vienna. It disappeared from the repertoire for 150 years, until it was produced in Genoa in 1974 and then had a major revival in Pesaro in 1996 (this performance, conducted by Yves Abel), where it has been remounted (and recorded) starring Annick Massis and Olga Peretyakto -- with Juan Diego Florez starring in all three productions! The plot is too complicated to recap here, so suffice it to say Matlide was thought to be dead, but it was just a ruse, and she sings this elaborate show-stopping florid aria as the opera's finale. There are videos on YT of this complete performance for further reference.

[@tamerlano]

That cabaletta is in a murderously high tessitura and she shows incredible stamina and whiplash coloratura.

[@lucasdebevec8581]

FANTÁSTICA, SUENA COMO UN INSTRUMENTO PRECISO Y LIMPIO, BELLO Y ARMONIOSO!

[@antonylias2055]

I saw this at Covent Garden with Kurzak, who was thrilling. She overshadowed JDF and dispatched the coloratura with complete aplomb. Futral sounds wonderful here too, a lovely and somewhat underappreciated artist.