Stephanie Klein-Davis

Elizabeth Futral, International Opera singer and her husband, Steven White, director of Opera Roanoke talk about a score at home off the Blue Ridge Parkway

Jukebox

Hear them sing

• Indian Love Call

See Elizabeth Futral

• Who: Elizabeth Futral with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and pianist Howard Watkins
• What: Music by Henry Purcell, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Andre Previn, John Musto, John Dowland, George Frederic Handel and others
• When: 2 p.m. Sunday
• Where: Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center
• Cost: $15-$40
• More information: 982-2742; www.operaroanoke.org
• Hear Futral interviewed by local radio personality Seth Williamson from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Saturday on WVTF Public Radio, 89.1 FM.

Bio info

Steven White

• Age: 44
• Job: Director of Opera Roanoke, freelance opera conductor
• Education: Bob Jones University; University of South Carolina
• Home: A Franklin County ridge top
• Married to: Soprano Elizabeth Futral
• Native of: South Carolina
• Other orchestras conducted: The New World Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London.

Elizabeth Futral

• Age: 43
• Job: Opera singer (coloratura soprano)
• Education: Samford University, Indiana University
• Married to: Opera Roanoke director Steven White
• Raised in: Covington, La.
• Opera companies performed with: The Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Sante Fe Opera, the Berlin State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Futral also has performed with the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.

HIGH IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS -- To find the Roanoke Valley's first couple of opera, you probably need a map. And a compass.

Some darn good directions, too.

Steven White, general and artistic director of Opera Roanoke, and his wife, international opera star Elizabeth Futral, live in a mountaintop house near Copper Hill, with a breathtaking view of Franklin County. Their closest neighbors are bluebirds.

It's a surprising setting for laborers in an art form that relies on crowds, both to perform it and appreciate it. Yet it makes more sense when you know their past. Both are native Southerners -- Futral grew up in Covington, La., and White was born in South Carolina.

In addition, White spent summers with his grandparents in Pulaski County as a child, and his father is from Max Meadows.

"I love that area," he said in an interview three years ago. "I love the people. I love the way of life."

Still, White conceded last week he was unsure how his wife, who performs around the world and often in New York City, would take to their new digs, which were completed in 2005. "I was a little afraid I was dragging her into the middle of nowhere."

He needn't have worried.

"I love New York," said Futral, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a Baptist preacher. "But it's a lot. It's on all the time. I need a place where I can recharge my batteries."

Sunday, Futral performs in recital with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey at Shaftman Performance Hall. It is her second performance in Roanoke since her husband began working here in the late 1990s.

White has been director of Opera Roanoke since 2004, though he still maintains an active freelance conducting career as well. The couple spend much of their time on the road and at a second residence in Chicago, but now make their primary residence here.

Just how much do they travel? White estimates they spend just four months of every year together at home. Futral says it may be less than that.

As if to dramatize the point, midway through a recent interview in their living room, a knock on the door signaled the arrival of White's luggage. The luggage had missed a connection on his flight home from Syracuse, N.Y., the night before. White had been conducting the Syracuse Opera production of "Lucia di Lammermoor."

"I feel like I'm finally home," exulted White.

Rising stars

White and Futral met in Florida, where both were working at Miami's Florida Grand Opera. ("I really got lucky," is White's take.) They moved to Chicago together, where Futral performed often in the 1990s with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. They got married on an impulse in 1998, the day after she returned from performing in Switzerland. They went to a Cubs game that night.

White, a baritone, was still performing in the 1990s -- the couple recorded a CD of love songs in 2000 -- but he has since given up his singing career to focus on conducting.

Meanwhile Futral's singing career has soared, with leading roles at some of the best-known opera companies in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Reviewers tend to praise both the purity of her voice and her raven-haired good looks. (Reviewing the Washington National Opera's production of Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore" in the Washington Post a year ago, Tim Page praised Futral's "spunk and spirit," and described her as "a charming artist, one of the few coloratura sopranos who don't sound as though they would rather have been born birds.")

In addition to the time they spend at home, husband and wife contrive to work together once or twice a year, with Futral singing and White conducting. White conducted London's Philharmonia Orchestra on Futral's 2003 CD, "Great Operatic Arias." Later this year they will work together again, on Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio," at Detroit's Michigan Opera Theatre.

Asked if they ever have artistic disagreements while working together, Futral said, "Yes," with a smile, and patted her husband's knee.

"I think she's the best," quipped White, explaining their working relationship. "She thinks I'm adequate." He also said it's a relief to be able to say things to her frankly, while with others he must tiptoe around the point.

No place like home

The events of 9/11 drove home to both of them the importance of family bonds. White was stranded at a Chicago airport that morning en route to Roanoke. He eventually rented a U-Haul truck -- all the rental cars were already gone -- and drove himself there. Futral flew away shortly afterward for a three-week engagement in Japan.

"It was a horrible feeling," she recalled. "I felt like somehow I should be here."

When working in different cities the couple telephone each other "six or seven times a day," said Futral. If they are in different countries, communication is typically by e-mail. E-mail, in fact, is a precious gift for a singer, said Futral, because it spares the voice.

The travel can be a hardship. White's Syracuse hotel room was "about the size of our fireplace," he said. Futral, who had the role of Princess Yueyang in the recent Metropolitan Opera premiere of "The First Emperor" recently, stayed with a friend.

They returned to their mountaintop house with relief. "I love it," said Futral of the house, which is located near the end of a winding road. The back windows command a distant view of Smith Mountain Lake. "It's serving a need in my life and I think Steven's, too."

Futral, who spent far less time in Southwest Virginia than her husband before moving here, said she is slowly but surely starting to feel at home. She and White both get their hair done at a nearby combination gas station/beauty salon. And Futral, a bluegrass fan like her father, has ventured into Roanoke for the jam sessions at Mill Mountain Coffee on Wednesday nights. They couple also enjoys eating at Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd, and they love to hike.

As for their neighbors, "People are sort of gradually getting to know what it is that I do," Futral said. "It's not like I'm a pop star. It's fine with me if they don't know."