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POSTED: 03/16/2012 03:13:19 PM MDTUPDATED: 03/16/2012 06:19:34 PM MDT

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Former University of Colorado fullback KeithMiller becomes an opera singerBy Ray Mark RinaldiThe Denver Post

Keith Miller rehearses his role in "Florencia en el Amazonas" at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Miller is aformer CU football player. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

They're the same drill really, football and opera. You make the team, put in the practice, andwhen the whistle blows you perform like your life depended on it.

Still, they don't overlap much among fans. Chances are that half the people who read this story— it is about a football star who became a world-class opera singer — wouldn't know which NFLteam has won the most Super Bowls. The other half couldn't tell you who wrote "MadameButterfly."

The answers, for the clueless and the clueless, are Pittsburgh and Puccini, and it's a safe bet thatKeith Miller would get both. He's the former University of Colorado fullback who found a newlife as a bass-baritone. These days, he performs at concert halls across the country, though hestill has the swagger of an athlete, and the triceps. When he talks about his fledgling career, it'sall about conditioning, getting ready for the big play.

And there's no downtime for an athlete in training, not even between gigs at The MetropolitanOpera House and Carnegie Hall, or here in Denver, where he makes his debut Saturday nightwith Opera Colorado.

"You can take the preseason off and play it safe, or you can put the work in," said Miller, who at38 is just getting to the place where many baritones start to do their best singing.

A player stays focused.

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Former University of Colorado fullback Keith Miller becomes a... http://www.denverpost.com/music/ci_20183408/former-universi...

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Keith Miller, right, rehearses his role with OperaColorado's "Florencia en el Amazonas" with directorJos Maria Condemi. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The DenverPost)

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"I know what's in front of me," he says. "I know what I need to do to be my best."

It's a story with the sort of wide turns Rossini might compose a score for (he wrote "The Barberof Seville," football fans). And it starts in the little town of Ovid, Colo., where Miller was raised.His dad worked for John Deere, his mother was a school teacher. Of course, there was a familyfarm, and Miller was up at 5 a.m. helping with sugar beets, tending to cattle.

He knew early on he wanted something different. He worked hard, stayed out of the kind oftrouble rural kids can get into, earned a 3.8 GPA.

"I didn't even

drink until I was 24," he says. "I knew if I didn'tdo it clean and the right way, I'd never get out ofthere."

Football got him out. He was tough and fast, andhis school made it to the state championships.He won a scholarship to CU. He remembersgoing to the school early on and watching theBuffaloes practice. He dreamed of making "oneplay, just one play" with the team.

It turned out better. Miller was on the team from1992 to 1996, lettering the last two years. Heplayed on three bowl teams, including the 1994team that finished in the top 10. It won theCotton Bowl and Holiday Bowl the next twoyears, points out Larry Zimmer, the longtime,and legendary, KOA radio announcer known asthe "Voice of the Buffaloes."

"That era was probably the best that CU footballhas ever been," said Zimmer. "If you add up thenumbers, in the years Keith played, they were 31and 5."

Miller was there for the famous 64-yard "hail Mary" pass of '94, when the Buffs miraculouslybeat Michigan in the final seconds of a big game. (That, opera fans, is one of the greatest collegefootball plays of all time.)

A semblance of a pro play followed, five years with the European and Arena football leagues. Hemay or may not have developed an NFL career — he was working out with teams, including theBroncos, but another interest lured him away.

Classic moves

Miller had become enchanted with opera in college. It started with a date to see "Phantom of theOpera." It grew into afternoons listening to recordings of truer works, such as Mozart's "DonGiovanni." He sang along, taught himself the lyrics. He threw caution to the wind, tried out atan open audition for the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan. He got the gig, and anagent, and sang his way into Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts.

Then a funny thing happened. He tried out for The Metropolitan Opera Company's Young ArtistDevelopment Program, and instead of getting in, he got offered a real job. Since then, he's beenin scores of productions, performing such roles as the King in "Aida," Count Monterone in"Rigoletto" and Zuniga in "Carmen."

Over the past few years, in addition to concert gigs, he's performed at the Washington NationalOpera (as The Bonze in "Madame Butterfly"), the Seattle Opera (Sarastro in "The Magic Flute")and at the well-regarded Florida Grand Opera (Figaro in "The Marriage of Figaro").

Opera is a medium of stories, and it helps that Miller has a unique one. He didn't grow up

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learning languages, or playing an instrument, like other singers. He came late to the game. Andhe took a risk on music "when he clearly had potential" as a football player, said Opera Coloradogeneral director Greg Carpenter.

Miller's deep and versatile voice has "great size and depth," Carpenter says, "a good, solid topand the kind of bottom you want to see in a bass-baritone."

"He has a sizable instrument at a time when we are seeing less of that," said Carpenter.

Opera Colorado was looking for a production that would allow it to showcase Miller's variedtalents. They found it in Mexican composer Daniel Catán's 1996 "Florencia en el Amazonas," arare Spanish-language opera with doses of magical realism. Miller plays Riolobo, a characterwith mystical traits who disappears into the sea and returns as a sort of spiritual superhero.

It's a physical part that even has Miller flying above the stage on ropes — a good fit for a singerwho happens to be in very good shape. He brings a confident athleticism to the gravity-defyingmoments that you wouldn't think imaginable from a guy like Pavarotti.

Opera Colorado insists Miller was hired for his voice, not his potential to bring a new set of fansto Ellie Caulkins Opera House. And conductor Ramon Tebar, who hails from Spain, didn't evenknow Miller was a former football player ("He played soccer? Hmm.")

But a few additional ticket buyers wouldn't hurt, and Miller's background gets its mentions inpromo materials. "Florencia" has a lush and easy-to-like score, but the title isn't familiar to mostopera- goers. "We want as many people as possible to see what we do, and that means havingevery seat filled," said Carpenter.

Working overtime

Miller isn't oblivious, or resistant, to the marketing efforts that play up his past over his singingability, or that bring him more attention than the star of the show, in this case PamelaArmstrong, who sings the colorful role of Florencia (opera fans need to know she's a skilledsoprano, football fans that she's hot in that voluptuous diva way).

But he knows a good back story isn't everything in a competitive field. Opera singers need tokeep egos in check and do the hard work. A lot of singers, he said, are "so good, so impenetrable.Like athletes, they get a sense of self-worth that's not really there."

A few things are keeping him humble. He has to fight to stay in the kind of shape that keeps thegood roles coming. That means running 4 miles a day, working out. It's hard in a career thattakes you from place to place. Last year, he took on roles in 10 cities over nine months.

He's also helping other artists. In conjunction with work at the Crested Butte Music Festival, hehas created something called "Puissance Training," which gets singers into the kind of physicalshape that will help sustain long careers.

"I'm 38 now. I'm on a career path that will take me to 70. But the question for me is, 'What do Ineed to do to allow that,' " Miller said.

Most humbling of all: He and his wife, Sage, have a new baby, Josephine, who helps "keep itreal." With a daughter in the mix, "I know I can be nothing but an example of the best for therest of my life."

If his voice holds up, the possibilities are vast. From Denver, he goes on to "Billy Budd" at TheMet. After that, he'll sing a staged piece with the New York Philharmonic at the Park AvenueArmory.

"To survive is the most important thing because not everybody does," he said.

In football, it would have been over by now.

Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540 or [email protected]

"FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS." Opera. Daniel Catan, composer. Brad Trexell, director.


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Starring Pamela Armstrong, Inna Dukach, Beth Clayton, Hector Vasquez, Kevin Langan, GregFedderly and Keith Miller. In Spanish with English subtitles. Four performances at theEllie Caulkins Opera House. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27, March 30, and April 1.$20-$150. operacolorado.org or 303-468-2030

This story has been corrected in this online archive. Due to a source error, Keith Miller's wife'sname was incorrect. Her name is Sage.


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This is a very good story. I read the same story 1 year ago on these pages. Glad he is still at it.

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