“In the title role, Puerto Rican soprano Natalia Santaliz… shone as the determined composer ready to make her stamp to the world. With her clear bright sound, she navigated Deutscher’s score with ease even at the loudest moments. Additionally, she looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress for the final scene!” – Parterre Box
Athlone Artists welcomes to the roster soprano Natalia Santaliz, who has been praised by El Nuevo Día for “angelic phrasing” and her “diaphanous voice, pristine diction, and mastery of colors” in recent performances of opera and concert repertoire.
Now an accomplished and busy soprano who has been heard on stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera San José and Berkshire Opera Festival, Natalia grew up on the west coast of Puerto Rico, where she discovered her love of music and performance at an early age. Though no one in her family was a musician, Natalia says, her parents always had music on at home. “I mean, every single day my dad had music playing! He would buy the soundtrack of any movie he liked. And there was all kinds of music. Through my parents – but especially my dad – I learned to appreciate not only listening to music, but living the music. Music became my lifestyle.”
When she was very young, Natalia’s parents enrolled her in the children’s choir at school. She laughs, “My parents said that I was a very shy and grumpy baby, so they thought this would be a good extracurricular activity.” Singing immediately brought Natalia out of her shell. Recognizing her talent, the choir conductor invited Natalia’s parents to hear their daughter rehearse. Natalia recalls, “From that moment, they started trying to expose me to more musical and artistic things.”
When she was ten, she entered the Escuela Libre de Música of Mayagüez, part of Puerto Rico’s public music school system, and began studying voice and piano. In 7th grade, she started taking individual voice lessons, but was mostly drawn to musical theater and pop music. When it came time to choose her college career path, she naturally wished to continue pursuing music, but there was no musical theater or pop vocal program on the island. Natalia was encouraged to learn classical vocal technique, and she instantly fell in love with opera.
Natalia earned her undergraduate degree in music from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, where she studied with Ilca López, and then headed off to pursue her master’s degree at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. There, teacher Beth Roberts solidified both her vocal technique and the knowledge that she was following the right path. “Beth Roberts has been my angel,” she says. “Every time I see her – no matter how long it has been – she shares her wisdom with me, and I really appreciate that.”
Natalia honed her musical skills as a member of the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s “Prelude to Performance” program, and in the Sherrill Milnes Voice Studio of the Savannah Voice Festival in Georgia. All was going as planned, until the COVID-19 pandemic altered everything.
“2020 was rough,” she admits. “In my head I had this perfect plan for what would happen when I graduated. Instead, I decided to come back to Puerto Rico and start singing here.”
It turned into the best decision she could have made.
In addition to ample singing opportunities on the island – performing in the concert series Música Abierta with Pro Arte Musical, Inc. whose mission is to teach children and special communities in Puerto Rico about music, playing the role of Camila in Frenesí by Johanny Navarro at the Cuartel de Ballajá in Puerto Rico; and singing the soprano solos in John Rutter’s Requiem with the Puerto Rico Symphony – Natalia’s opportunities on the U.S. mainland continued to grow.
Auditions led to an invite for the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and a Resident Artist contract at Opera San José. And in 2024, Natalia was asked to be a part of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, performing as one of the Niñas.
“My parents, uncle, grandmother – everyone came to see me at the Met,” she says. “It was a dream come true for me, but it was also something tangible that I could give to my parents as a thank you for all they have done – driving me to endless rehearsals, and always being supportive. I feel very blessed and also very happy and satisfied to have done something that I’m really proud of.”
In addition to her Metropolitan Opera debut, Natalia’s other recent operatic engagements include a residency at Opera San José, where she performed the role of Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and in the title role in the company’s production of Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella, singing the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Berkshire Opera Festival, covering the role of Papagena in The Magic Flute as an Opera Theatre of St. Louis Gerdine Young Artist; and singing Nella while covering Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi in the Manetti Shrem Opera Program of Festival Napa Valley.
Natalia loves all things Puerto Rican, and is a proud advocate of her musical and cultural heritage. She has taught at the Coro de Niños de San Juan, where she says “it is exciting for me to pass down my experiences.” She has performed Puerto Rican Folk Music in a program with the New World Symphony, and 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, Teatro Lírico del Oeste, and Coro Nacional de Puerto Rico. She also always includes something Puerto Rican on every program she curates, saying, “I love to showcase a little bit of my culture.”
Later this month, Natalia looks forward to singing the soprano solos in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico under conductor Emilio Colón.
For fun on the island, she enjoys life outdoors – hiking and scuba diving at Crash Boat Beach in Aguadilla. She also joins CBS Puerto Rico for a new project to share news about arts, culture and classical music with her beloved community. And she is looking forward to this next chapter in the “very good hands” of Miguel Rodriguez and Athlone Artists. In short, Natalia says, “I love what I do!”