Soprano Heather Hjelle is the most recent recipient of the Encouragement Grant from the Wagner Society of New York. Shortly after the award she performed Dich Teure Halle with the Kenwood Symphony. Previously, her professional debut was made with the role of Santuzza in Main Street Opera’s production of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, the same year she covered Metropolitan Opera soprano Alexandra LoBianco in the same role with Opera Steamboat. In 2019, she starred in the title role of La Gioconda with Opera MODO.

Ms. Hjelle has performed with Operafestival di Roma, performing the roles of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Suor Angelica in Puccini’s Suor Angelica. She has portrayed Rusalka in Dvořák’s Rusalka with Toronto Summer Opera and was looking forward to returning to Opera Steamboat where she would have covered the role of Ariadne in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, but due to COVID, this performance was cancelled.

A Minnesota native, Heather earned a degree in Theatre with a minor in music from Bethany Lutheran College, where she has recently returned as a faculty member. This summer, Hjelle will be a in residence with The American Wagner Project in Reno, Nevada. Shortly thereafter, she will return to her hometown of Barrett, MN to perform in “The Every Person’s Guide to Opera”. This is a concert series designed to introduce opera to areas that might not have access this style of art. Ms. Hjelle has been awarded a grant by the LRAC to produce this series.

Baritone Franco Pomponi made his European debut in the title role of Hamlet at the Liceu in Barcelona and success followed worldwide. He created a sensation in Paris as Pentheus in The Bassarids by Henze at the Théâtre du Châtelet and has returned to sing the title roles in new productions of Nixon in China (broadcast on Mezzo) and Sweeney Todd. His Italian debut came at Teatro Massimo, Palermo, as Nick Shadow in Cesare Lievi’s production of A Rake’s Progress. He debuted at Opernhaus Zürich in a new production of Les pêcheurs de perles as Zurga (dir. Rizzi), the title role of Don Giovanni for his debut at Bolshoï Opera (dir. Currentzis) and in Budapest in a new production of The Tempest as Prospero at Hungarian State Opera.

Mr. Pomponi was a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago and made his Chicago debut as Germont in Verdi’s La traviata. He made his New York debut as Escamillo in Carmen at New York City Opera. Other debuts: Ford in Falstaff for The Santa Fe Opera (dir. Arrivabeni), ‘Four Villains’ in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Finnish National Opera (dir. Fournillier). He made his Carnegie Hall debut as Pater Ecstaticus in Symphony Nº 8 of Mahler with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Additional highlights include: Ezio, Attila, Seïd, Il Corsaro, OFC Chicago; Tebaldo, Giulietta e Romeo (Zandonai), New York; Prigioniero, Il Prigioniero (Dallapiccola), Chicago; Pangloss, Candide, Metternich, L’Aiglon, Lausanne; Hamlet, Barcelona, Marseille, Brussels, Kansas City; Don Giovanni, Bolshoi, Moscow, Geneva, Athens, Montpellier, Guangzhou; Eugene Onegin, FGO, Miami, Spoleto Festival; Escamillo, Carmen, L.A. Opera, NYCO, Helsinki, Bremen; ‘Four Villains,’ Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Golaud, Pelléas et Mélisande, Reisopera Netherlands; Paolo, Simon Boccanegra, Grand Théâtre de Genève; Germont, La traviata, Grant Park Music Festival; Ford, Falstaff, Canadian Opera; Count di Luna, Il trovatore, Austin Lyric; Michele, Il tabarro, Opera Festival of Chicago; Jack Rance, Fanciulla del West, KYO; Marcello, La bohème, Opéra de Lausanne, Opéra Vichy; Schaunard, La bohème, Count Dominik, Arabella, Metropolitan Opera, New York; Valentin, Faust, Opéra de Toulon; Hérode, Hérodiade, Silvio, Pagliacci, Dorset Opera; Frank/Pierrot, Die tote Stadt, Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Guglielmo, Così fan tutte, Belcore, L’elisir d’amore, Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg; Argante, Rinaldo, NYOpera Fest; Ping, Turandot, Mercutio, Roméo et Juliette, Malatesta, Don Pasquale, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Carbon, Cyrano, Teatro Real, Madrid. Mr. Pomponi has sung leading roles under Abell, Abbassi, Andrizzi, Bartoletti, de Billy, Eschenbach, Gergiev, Guidarini, López Cobos, Luisotti, Mehta, Minkowski, Levine, Mazzola, Nagano, Nelson, Niquet, Olmi, Ōno, Pappano, Pidò, Schwarz, Soltész, Villaume, de Waart.

Franco is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Opera Festival of Chicago

A New Jersey–based opera coach, he is conversationally fluent in French and Italian and brings nearly two decades of experience to his work. His coaching focuses predominantly on the Italian repertoire, spanning from Mozart to Puccini.

The primo ottocento bel canto repertoire is a particular specialty, with deep familiarity in the works of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Pacini, and Ricci. Occasional excursions into other traditions provide welcome refreshment—cherished forays into Wagner, Strauss, Beethoven, German lieder, or the Russian repertoire of Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky—before returning to his Italianate home turf.