(woman) "Prairie Musicians" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota, and by the members of Prairie Public.

[click!]

[piano plays in minor tones] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [singing in Italian] ♪ Suicidio ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In questi ♪ ♪ Fieri momenti ♪ ♪ Tu sol ♪ ♪ Mi resti ♪ ♪ E il cor ♪ ♪ Mi tenti ♪ ♪ Ultima voce ♪ ♪ Del mio destino ♪ ♪ Ultima croce ♪ ♪ Del mio ♪ ♪ Cammino ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ E un di ♪ ♪ Leggiadro ♪ ♪ Volava l'ore ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Perdei la madre ♪ ♪ Perdei l'amore ♪ ♪ Perdei l'amore ♪ ♪ Vinsi l'infausta ♪ ♪ Gelosa febbre ♪ ♪ Or piombo esausta ♪ ♪ Or piombo esausta ♪ ♪ Fra le tenebre ♪ ♪ Fra le ♪ ♪ Tenebre ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Tocco alla metà ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Domando al cielo ♪ ♪ Domando al cielo ♪ ♪ Di dormir quieta ♪ ♪ Di dormir quieta ♪ ♪ Dentro l'ave ♪ ♪ Domando al cielo ♪ ♪ Al cielo ♪ ♪ Di dormir quieta ♪ ♪ Dentro l'ave ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Tocco alla metà ♪ ♪ Domando al cielo ♪ ♪ Di dormir quieta ♪ ♪ Dentro l'ave ♪ Hi, I'm Heather Hjelle from Barrett, Minnesota, and I'm here to be performing my favorite opera arias.

[singing in Russian] Today collaborating with me on the piano is Mary Jo Gothmann from the Minneapolis area.

[singing in Russian] ♪ ♪ I was always surrounded by music in my family.

We always had it playing on the radio, different genres.

My grandmother loved playing hymns, my grandfather listened to polka music, my mother was into '80s rock, and finially I was introduced to the musical "Grease," and there began my love of musicals which stemmed into opera eventually.

♪ Nicht weilt er ferne mehr.

♪ So I did my undergraduate degree at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, and there I majored in theater actually, but still loved to sing a lot, so I took voice lessons and was in choir and discovered my love of opera when I was given an opera aria as an assignment in voice lessons.

From there I just fell deep into YouTube rabbit holes of watching as much opera as I could.

And I took 3 years off between undergrad and grad school to kind of study it more.

Then I auditioned for grad school and began singing in Chicago at North Park University.

There i got my first opera role in a show called "The Ballad of Baby Doe," and I sang Augusta Taber.

From there I was assigned more and more roles and fell more in love with the art form.

♪ Mir kam ♪ ♪ Doch dich kannt' ♪ So in opera the voice catagories are a little bit more specific than when we talk about choral singers, which we have soprano, alto, bass, baritone, tenor.

In opera we get to classify and subclassify, so for example, I'm mainly a soprano, but under that catagory I would be considered a dramatic soprano, which means that I sing a bigger style of repretiore, louder, the orchestra usually has more pieces in it.

And with being a dramatic soprano I get to sing longer lines, there's less moving notes, lots of legato singing.

[playing a melodic intro] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [singing in Italian] ♪ Morro ♪ ♪ Ma prima in grazia, ♪ ♪ Deh!

mi consenti ♪ ♪ Almeno ♪ ♪ L'unico figlio ♪ ♪ Mio avvincere ♪ ♪ Al mio seno.

♪ ♪ E se alla moglie nieghi ♪ ♪ Quest'ultimo favor, ♪ ♪ Non rifiutarlo ai ♪ ♪ Prieghi ♪ ♪ Ai prieghi ♪ ♪ Del mio materno cor.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Morro, ♪ ♪ Ma queste viscere ♪ ♪ Consolino i ♪ ♪ Suoi baci, ♪ ♪ Or che l'estrema è giunta ♪ ♪ Dell'ore mie fugaci.

♪ ♪ Spenta per man del padre, ♪ ♪ La man ei stenderà ♪ ♪ Sugl'occhi d'una madre ♪ ♪ Sugl'occhi d'una madre ♪ ♪ Che mai piu non vedrà!

♪ ♪ Che mai piu ♪ ♪ Mai piu ♪ ♪ Che mai piu non vedrà!

♪ ♪ Che mai piu ♪ ♪ Mai piu non vedrà!

♪ ♪ Che mai piu ♪ ♪ Mai piu ♪ ♪ Che mai ♪ ♪ Piu vedrà!

♪ ♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ♪ ♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ♪ ♪ Ah ah-ah ah-ah ♪ ♪ Che mai piu ♪ ♪ Vedrà!

♪ So when the pandemic hit, I lost all of my contracts, and I was an adjunct professor and lost that job as well, so I moved back to the family farm by Barrett, Minnesota where I'm currently living with my grandmother who is my best friend.

Since coming home I've actually found that my art has been more inspired not being in a bustling city all the time, having some air to breathe, some nature to be anomgst, and more opportunities being in Minnesota.

Art is alive and well in this neck of the woods, and I'm happy to be participating with some fine artists in this area.

♪ ♪ [singing in Russian] This aria is a selection from the letter scene from Eugene Onegin, and it's sung by a character called Tatiana, and she is madly in love, it's young love, and she is going back and forth in her head whether to write this letter and give it to this boy or not.

Am I going to be rejected?

So it's young love, it's very exciting.

[playing with emotion] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [singing in Russian] [singing in Russian] [singing in Russian] [singing in Russian] [piano interlude] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [singing in Russian] Last summer after I moved home from the pandemic, I was asked by everyone in the area, my small town in Barrett, what is opera?

Why do you do that?

How'd you get into that?

I felt like I needed to show them, not tell them.

So I put together this concert series that I've been awarded a grant to do again this coming summer called "The Every Person's Guide to Opera."

And in it I invite other opera colleagues up to this area, and we perform it in Roosevelt Hall in Barrett, Minnesota.

And the audience comes in, and they're greeted with not only the program, but also a small pencil and a sheet of paper, and they get to watch different songs and scenes from different operas where we tell them what's happening, who the characters are.

We explain each ittle element before the scene is performed.

Throughout the show they get to write their questions on that little piece of paper, then we collect them, and we as a group of singers answer those questions at the end of the concert so that they can discover what opera is and not be afraid of it.

We had strong reactions.

Luckily I invited colleagues up that were okay with us answering questions and having a little humor and being a little informal with our art form.

And just a really strong reaction from the audience.

They were engaged, they were laughing, they didn't feel like they had to be silent the whole time.

They were really interacting with us, which is what we want as performers.

I think when approaching opera, we need to not be scared to ask questions.

Oftentimes artists are more than willing to talk to someone that has never experienced this art form before and answer these questions.

I think asking questions is the first big step into a good introduction into this art form.

So don't be afraid to ask those questions.

♪ Dich gruesste mein Herz ♪ ♪ Mit heiligem Grau'n, ♪ Als dein Blick zuerst mir ♪ This aria is called "Du bist der Lenz" by Wagner.

it's a very, very exciting song about young love, once again.

The character Sieglinde is pouring out her soul and how much she loves this person and talks about how scary it has been without someone by her side.

[playing in bright rhythm] ♪ ♪ ♪ Du bist der Lenz, ♪ ♪ Nach dem ich verlangte ♪ ♪ In frostigen ♪ ♪ Winters Frist.

♪ ♪ Dich gruesste mein Herz ♪ ♪ Mit heiligem Grau'n, ♪ ♪ Als dein Blick ♪ ♪ Zuerst mir ♪ ♪ Erbluehte.

♪ ♪ Fremdes nur sah ich von je, ♪ ♪ Freudlos war mir das Nahe.

♪ ♪ Als haett' ich nie es gekannt, ♪ ♪ War, was immer mir kam.

♪ ♪ Doch dich ♪ ♪ Kannt' ich deutlich und klar: ♪ ♪ Als mein Auge dich sah, ♪ ♪ Warst du mein Eigen; ♪ ♪ Was im Busen ich barg, ♪ ♪ Was ich bin, ♪ ♪ Hell wie der Tag ♪ ♪ Taucht' es mir auf, ♪ ♪ O wie toenender Schall ♪ ♪ Schlug's an mein Ohr, ♪ ♪ Als in frostig oeder Fremde ♪ ♪ Zuerst ich ♪ ♪ Den Freund ♪ ♪ Ersah.

♪ My favorite place to perform was in a church in Italy.

And it was this beautiful church that I couldn't even see the back of when I was up front.

It was a role where I was playing a nun, and it really made me feel connected to the character and the dramatic things that were happening to her, and it was just the most beautiful setting I had ever been in.

Opera is not only performed in those large opera houses.

I've done a show inside of a house, like a mansion, and we've moved room to room.

That was really cool.

Oftentimes concerts in smaller venues, it's done outside.

it should be accessible everywhere, not just at big opera houses.

♪ Morro, ma queste viscere ♪ ♪ Consolino ♪ The furture is always kind of a scary thing when it comes to the arts, but I think things are starting to come back post COVID.

I'm auditioning, and I'm teaching, and I'm working on my own project called "The Every Person's Guide to Opera" which is going to be performing in rural areas to help bring this art form to people that don't normally have access to it.

And that's a big goal of mine as an artist.

♪ Wie jetzt mein Busen hoch ♪ ♪ Sich hebet, ♪ ♪ So scheinst du jetzt mir stolz und hehr.

♪ This aria is called "Dich Teure Halle" by Wagner.

It is a character greeting this hall that she is so excited to be in and that her love is returning to her.

[playing in spirited rhythm] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Dich, teure Halle, gruess' ich wieder, ♪ ♪ Froh gruess' ich dich, ♪ ♪ Geliebter Raum!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In dir erwachen seine Lieder ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Und wecken mich ♪ ♪ Aus duestrem Traum.

♪ ♪ Da er ♪ ♪ Aus dir geschieden, ♪ ♪ Wie oed erschienst du mir!

♪ ♪ Aus mir ♪ ♪ Entfloh der Frieden, ♪ ♪ Die Freude ♪ ♪ Zog aus dir.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Wie jetzt mein Busen hoch sich hebet, ♪ ♪ So scheinst du jetzt mir stolz und hehr.

♪ ♪ Der mich und dich so neu belebet, ♪ ♪ Nicht weilt er ferne mehr.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Wie jetzt mein Busen hoch sich hebet, ♪ ♪ So scheinst du jetzt mir stolz und hehr.

♪ ♪ Der mich und dich so neu belebet, ♪ ♪ Nicht weilt er ferne mehr.

♪ ♪ Sei mir gegruesst!

♪ ♪ ♪ Sei mir gegruesst!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Du, teure Halle, ♪ ♪ Sei mir gegruesst!

♪ Sei mir gegruesst!

♪ Du, teure Halle, ♪ ♪ Sei mir gegruesst!

(woman) "Prairie Musicians" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota, and by the members of Prairie Public.