Gabriel Natal-Báez Recital

The San Francisco Opera's young professionals training programs is two-tiered: the summer-long Merola Opera Program hosts a couple of dozen singers, directors, and accompanists under their own umbrella while the Adler Fellowship Program is like graduate school, where around ten singers at a time join the SF Opera Company for two to three years to be coached in singing, languages, and acting. The young artists also sing smaller roles on main stage productions and cover principal roles during the season. Last year's Merola Opera Program featured Malaysian pianist Tzu Kuang Tan and Puerto Rican baritone Gabriel Natal-Báez, and they were the stars of an art song recital on Cinco de Mayo this week at the Unitarian Church on Franklin Street. (Photo by Matthew Washburn)

It was a happy surprise when Gabriel Natal-Báez was selected to be in the Adler Fellowship Program after his summer stint with Merola. He seemed to have less experience in his bio than most of the other participants, and he wasn't given much to do onstage last summer, but his huge, gorgeous baritone and expressive features obviously stood out for the Adler jury. As part of that promotion, he was also offered a spot in the annual Schwabacher Recital Series. (Photo by Matthew Washburn)

Recitals of German lieder, French chansons, Spanish canciones, and English art songs are not really my thing, a serious failure of taste according to friends, but I wanted to see how Natal-Báez sounded solo and up close. He was triumphant, singing with beauty, expression, and a wide range of dynamics. The program selections were also interesting. The first half of the program featured six Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams and four Schubert lieder with lyrics by Goethe, all filled with longing and stress. The second half featured Ravel's exquisite Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, followed by the contemporary composer Miquel Ortega's Dos Canciones del Romancero Gitano de Federico Garcia Lorca. Happily at home singing in Spanish, Natal-Báez finished with four Latin American songs by Luis Antonio Ramirez, Manuel Ponce, Astor Piazzolla, and Alfonso Esparza Oteo. (Photo by Michael Strickland)

Part of what made this concert so enjoyable was the brilliant piano accompaniment by Tzu Kuang Tan, who masterfully evoked a whole world of musical styles. I look forward to hearing him in the future and seeing Gabriel on the War Memorial Opera House stage over the next couple of years. (Photo by Michael Strickland)