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Albert Lea students will have an interactive opportunity to learn about opera on Thursday from professionals from the Minnesota Opera.

The Albert Lea High School concert choir and performers from the Minnesota Opera will perform sections of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” for students from the elementary and middle schools.

This possibility came about through “pARTnership” grant money through the Perpich Center for the Arts. That grant money will pay to bus selected classes from the elementary and middle schools to the performance in the Albert Lea High School auditorium at 10:45 p.m. Thursday.

“I hope that they feel that opera is more accessible than they previously thought,” said Angie Keeton, a teaching artist with the Minnesota Opera. “A lot of people hear it passively through commercials or movies, soundtracks and stuff like that. But to have them have an active and interactive experience with the art form is very important to me.”

In the past, the opera has often worked with high schools with lectures and vocal coaching, but Keeton said there was a need to work with younger students.

The solution was “Through the Eyes and Ears of Mozart,” an interactive performance that uses choir students to perform parts of an opera to give students a basic knowledge about opera. Keeton also said one goal of teaching students about opera is to dispel stereotypes about the genre.

“They, I think, tend to expect the big German lady with braids and the horns and the helmet, and I tend to not necessarily fit that stereotype. So it’s good to have them have some exposure to a younger singer because our careers have to kind of wait until we’re older and for our voices to be mature enough to really sing opera well,” said Keeton, who choir director Diane Heaney described as a “tall, blonde, trim, good-looking woman.”

The backdrop for the performance will consist of a large painting of Mozart, and costume pieces will be used to highlight the personality of each of the characters.

Juniors Emily Troe, Ben Knutson, Zoe Hill and Ben Heaney will act in the performance, and seniors Katie Walker and Annemarie Caporale will sing a duet. The rest of Diane Heaney’s concert choir will sing a few pieces from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Keeton said the performance is modernized and is inspired by Donald Trump and will include props like a cellular phone.

Keeton and the performers will stop the performance throughout the performance to talk about what is going on. For example, Keeton will use cue cards to explain what some of the Latin words mean.

“We talk a lot of it out. We’ll say a lot of things like, ‘and then Susanna comes out,’” said Keeton to the students while practicing the performance with them.

The idea was developed by the previous teaching artist, but Keeton said she helped develop the script and musical selections for the performance as part of a grant from Xcel Energy to create a performance tour. This is the first year of the program and Keeton said they hope to be able to expand it next year.