The Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center, continues with the second concert of its 41st season on Wednesday, March 19 in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall at San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Bowes Center.
The March 19 recital highlights the artistry of four 2024 Merola Opera Program graduates: tenor Michael John Butler, baritone Olivier Zerouali, and pianists Julian Garvue and Ji Youn Lee. Works in the program include Francis Poulenc’s Le Travail du Peintre and Calligrammes, Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Lee Hoiby’s I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman and songs by Richard Strauss.
American tenor Michael John Butler is poised to emerge as a major contender on the international opera scene, with a voice described as having a “bright, ringing quality throughout his range” and a “plush, resonant middle voice with vibrant high notes” (OperaWire). Butler debuted with Washington National Opera as the Mission Coordinator in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded and reprised the role in workshop with The Metropolitan Opera. In 2024, he made his international debut as Martin in Copland’s The Tender Land with Teatro Regio di Torino and recently performed Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Merola Opera Program. An alumnus of Des Moines Metro Opera and a Renée Fleming Artist at Aspen Music Festival, Butler has performed Fenton in Falstaff with Sir Bryn Terfel, the title role of Gounod’s Faust and Rodolfo in La Bohème. A Washington, D.C. native, he is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at The Juilliard School.
Baritone Olivier Zerouali is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. As a Merola Opera Program participant he performed Silvio in a scene from Pagliacci and Malatesta in a scene from Don Pasquale. In 2023 he was Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with the Glimmerglass Festival. His other roles include Robert in Iolanta, Slook in Rossini’s Il Cambiale di Matrimonio, Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Brother in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Pandolfe in Cendrillon, the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro and Zaretsky/Captain in Eugene Onegin. Zerouali completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Music, is currently completing his master’s degree at Yale University and has received training with the Merola Opera Program, Glimmerglass Festival, Young Artists Vocal Academy of Houston Grand Opera, Highlands Opera Studio and Berlin Opera Academy.