Nathan joins Gilfry’s steamy, dangerous Stanley in André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, which debuted at the San Francisco Opera in 1998, as signature characters he has created in new works— and Nathan is the latest role in a brilliant career for the talented baritone. Gilfry has appeared in major opera houses around the world, co-starring with some of opera’s biggest luminaries, including Placido Domingo, Cecilia Bartoli, Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming, Carol Vaness, Jennifer Larmore and Frederica von Stade.

But for the blond, broad-shouldered singer who many feel looks more like a surfer than a man suited to play Don Giovanni, an opera career was not his ambition growing up in Southern California.

A career in music, however, was Gilfry’s destiny. His late father was a high-school, college, military band and orchestra conductor before becoming a high-school teacher, administrator and counselor. His mother, a former teacher who trained as a singer, introduced her children to singing.

Gilfry’s parents owned a music store in Covina, but sold it to a friend. Unfortunately, the new owner couldn’t always make his payments. “Once in a while, he would pay off what he owed my parents in the form of instruments,” says Gilfry. “So we had a couple hundred instruments in our garage. My father would encourage us to go out [there] and take out any instrument we wanted, and he would show us how to play it. It was really fantastic.”