‘SuperLatina’ to talk about her Fort Worth Opera journey

In November, Fort Worth Opera announced the cast for “María de Buenos Aires,” an opera composed by Astor Piazzolla, which means that it’s going to have a lot of tango in it.

The most unusual casting: Gaby Natale, the Emmy-winning host and executive producer of “SuperLatina,” a Vme-TV show that happens to be produced in Fort Worth.

Natale is known for inspirational books and for winning Emmys as well as her TV-hosting gig. She is not known for opera. So she’s going to give a talk about how she got involved with this.

On Jan. 9, Natale will appear in an “Opera Unfiltered” talk from 6 to 8 p.m. at Kent & Co. Wines, 1101 W. Magnolia Ave. in Fort Worth, to talk about “the unexpected journey that led her to being cast” in the production, according to a Fort Worth Opera press release.

“María de Buenos Aires” is described as being about “a young woman [mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian] living in the slums of Buenos Aires, who finds herself seduced by the sounds of tango.” Mexican-American baritone Luis Alejandro Orozoco plays El Payador, a “traveling, romantic balladeer,” and Natale plays “the mischievous El Duende.”

At Kent & Co., Natale will discuss how she’s preparing for her role in the surrealistic tango opera, which will be directed and choreographed by Texas Christian University alum John de los Santos, who has done previous work for Fort Worth Opera and opera companies around the country.

Natale shares Piazzolla’s Argentinean background: According to a September 2016 story for the Star-Telegram’s Indulge magazine, Natale and her husband, Andres “Andy” Suarez, moved away from their native Argentina in 2003. She established herself as a journalist by working as a reporter for TV Azteca in Mexico (2004) and as a news anchor for Univision in Texas (2004-2007). She launched her show in Midland-Odessa in 2007, the year she earned her green card. In July 2014, less than a year after Natale became a U.S. citizen, “SuperLatina” went national on Vme-TV.

“María de Buenos Aires” will kick off the 2018 Fort Worth Opera Festival on April 27 at Bass Hall. It will be sung in Spanish with supertitles in English and Spanish. Tickets are $75, available at www.fwopera.org. For more information, call 817-731-0726 or toll-free at 877-396-7372.

This story was originally published January 2, 2018 at 1:01 PM with the headline "‘SuperLatina’ to talk about her Fort Worth Opera journey."