Queen of the Opera

Tessa Hartl has her sights set on the MET – the Metropolian Opera, that is.

The 2015 graduate of New Rockford-Sheyenne High School and daughter of Tom and Dawn Hartl of New Rockford, has advanced in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

She competed in the North Dakota-Manitoba District competition of the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday, Jan. 18. There, she sang two operatic solos, one of which –"No Word from Tom" – she'd sung in Fargo last August when she starred in the NDSU Chamber Festival's 10th anniversary production of "The Rake's Progress." The competition took place at UND in Grand Forks and featured singers who braved the blizzard to fly in from cities such as Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston and even Paris, France.

Hartl, the only North Dakota native, was announced as a winner as well as the audience choice, for a combined total of $2,500 in prize money. She now moves to the regional round of the competition in Minneapolis on February 9.

Hartl is currently finishing her final semester of grad school at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where she studies opera under renowned soprano Tracy Dahl. Highlights from her time in Canada include singing the role of the Königin der Nacht (The Queen of the Night) in a production of U of Manitoba's "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute"), ice skating on the Assiniboine and Red River trails, and infecting Canadians with the North Dakotan urge to say "uff da." Following her graduation, she plans to return to New Rockford for the summer to be a part of DPRCA's production of "The Ark."