On March 22, the Utah Opera Young Artists Apprentice Company will perform a presentation of musical fairy tales called “Once Upon a Time.”

The performance will take place during Professor Karen Bruestle’s opera rehearsal class. It will be about an hour in length with a Q&A session at the end.

While it is during her class, Bruestle said it is free and open to the public.

“The Utah Opera Young Artists always do a very lively and engaging performance when they travel here to Weber State,” Bruestle said.

This opera company has come to Weber State annually for the past eight years.

The current members of the Utah Opera Young Artists Apprentice Company have master’s degrees in music and have spent portions of their lives perfecting their voices.

These singers perform with the Utah Opera and Symphony. They also travel to schools all over the state teaching students about the importance of music.

In a world full of commercial artists on the radio, one student says that other college students should take an interest in opera.

Whitney Kimball is a vocal performance major, opera singer and a long-time fan of opera music.

“I (enjoy) the older late-19th century composers. It was all about the flow of everything … There’s a music term in German, but in English, it translates to ‘tone, color, melody.’ Opera is a big wash of sound and color,” Kimball said.

She mentioned an important distinction to make is the difference between opera and operetta. Operettas include speaking, along with operatic singing. Operas are only operatic singing alongside orchestral music.

“People think that (opera) is really outdated, but it’s an art that keeps growing and changing, just like any other art. There’s operas being composed every day, but people don’t often think about it because we may see it as an archaic form of music … I don’t know if people just view it to be a Viking lady singing on stage,” Kimball said.

Opera music is usually done live in order to show the talents of the performers themselves.

“There are no microphones in opera. I think there is something really special in hearing someone’s voice that’s not changed or manipulated … You’re directly connected to that singer,” Kimball said.

While talking about how most music on the radio is meant to make you dance, Kimball stated that opera offers an emotional connection that other genres fall short in.

“As college students, we don’t get enough of sitting and being. In listening to opera, you can sit and think while making a connection to the characters,” Kimball said. “(Opera) is not like a Taylor Swift song where you can just sing along to it. They are trained singers who have worked for years to sing the way they do. Singing along with it is hard.”

For those interested in finding out more about opera, Kimball recommended checking out “The Merry Widow” which has been performed by the Utah Opera. It is an operetta so it is more like a musical and it is entirely in English.

Any student or non-student interested in attending is invited to watch the “Once Upon a Time” presentation put on by the Utah Opera Young Artists Apprentice Company.

The performance will be on March 22 at 1:45 p.m. in the Garrison Choral Room, located in the Browning Center.