Soprano Natalia Santaliz “conquered the audience with her diaphanous voice, pristine diction and mastery of the low, medium and high colors in her wide register.” (El Nuevo Día, San Juan) As a Resident Artist at Opera San José, in February 2023 she performed the role of Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and in November 2022 she starred as the title role in the company’s production of Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella.
Ms. Santaliz was part of the Berkshire Opera Festival’s production of Don Giovanni where she performed the role of Zerlina. She is a Gerdine Young Artists Alumni 2022, (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis) and a Manetti Shrem Opera Program Alumni 2021, (Festival Napa Valley). She was part of the concert series Música Abierta with Pro Arte Musical, Inc. whose mission is to teach children and special communities in Puerto Rico about music. On season 2021 Ms. Santaliz performed the role of Camila in Frenesí by Johanny Navarro at the Cuartel de Ballajá in Puerto Rico; was the soprano soloist in John Rutter’s Requiem with the Puerto Rico Symphony under the direction of Rafael Enrique Irizarry; and sang on the program The Blue Project: Puerto Rican Folk Music presented by New World Symphony. Previous to these engagements, she was a member of the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s “Prelude to Performance” where she covered the role of Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and sang on a masterclass for Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet. In 2017 she participated in the Sherrill Milnes Voice Studio as part of the Savannah Voice Festival in Georgia. She has been a guest artist with Ópera de Puerto Rico, Teatro de la Ópera, Fundación Puertorriqueña de Zarzuela y Opereta, Taller de Opera del Conservatorio de Música, and Teatro Lírico del Oeste.
Additional roles include Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Mařenka in The Bartered Bride by Bedřich Smetana. Ms. Santaliz has been presented in recital at Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico in Miramar and Mannes The New School in New York. Her voice teachers have included Ilca López and Beth Roberts. She is the recipient of the 2016 Roberto I. Ferdman Award.
