- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds chirping) (lively music) (lively music) - [Narrator] Coming up next, "Off 90."

Join us as we travel to Rochester to learn about an opera company bringing its cultural experience to Southern Minnesota.

(lively music) And visit Kenny's Oak Grill, a restaurant that's been a fixture of Austin for 60 years.

(lively music) It's all just ahead, "Off 90."

(lively music) (lively music) (lively music) (lively music) (singer sings in foreign language) (singer sings in foreign language) - I'm Kate Rogers, I'm the Executive Director of Hometown Opera Company.

So, there was kind of a group of us friends around the January 2023, and we just kind of got to talking about how there really aren't a lot of opportunities for opera singers around Rochester and the surrounding areas, and just, you know, how it can be kind of frustrating wanting to do more of that music and more of that style, but then, you know, kind of having few opportunities, especially in the area.

And so, thought of like creative ways to make more opportunities for ourselves to perform that art form.

(lively music) - [ Stefanie] I am Stefanie Tranchida, and I am the Artistic Director of the Hometown Opera Company.

(singer sings in foreign language) Opera's a lot different than other stage acts or concerts that you may see when people think of fully-staged performances nowadays, a lot of people think musical theater.

Musical theater is fantastic.

You've got the singing, the dancing, the dialogue, opera has all that, too, but it's mostly just singing.

You might get an opera here or there that has some dialogue as well, but it means you're fully immersed in beautiful music the whole time.

It's also timeless music.

So most operas that are performed are hundreds of years old, and that means that the music is just that good that people want to keep listening to it.

So, it's just classic.

It's timeless, and I think it will just go on and on forever.

It's also a completely different technique and singing style.

The Bel Canto technique is what it's called.

It's just using the whole body and all of the resonance that you can to make this beautiful sound.

Singers and opera aren't mic'd, so we have to project over an entire orchestra and fill an entire auditorium, and that takes years to learn that technique and to perfect it.

I'm still working on it to this day.

It's a very technical, heavy type of singing.

It's, I think, the most challenging type of singing that there is.

And so, and it's, again, you get, unlike just a concert, you do get the acting, the full scene and setting.

You get the orchestra, you get sometimes there's opera with dance, so it's really a full-on performance and it could be funny, it could be tragic, it could be about love.

It's just, it's beautiful.

(singer sings in foreign language) (choir sings in foreign language) (singer sings in foreign language) - We kind of started brainstorming around October, November of 2022, and then set a date in January 2023 to, oh, it was actually beginning of February, end of January where we did our first concert.

It was kind of neat how it came together because we didn't know where we were gonna do this performance.

And then, we reached out to the Historic Chateau downtown, and the dates happened to be available, and we had just thought what a perfect venue for an opera show.

So, yeah, and it was available, and so that worked out that way.

(singer sings in foreign language) We just, you know, had all these singers with formal training, you know, a lot of lessons with formal coaches and really strong connections to this art form and this genre.

And it was almost like this is just a pity that people are missing out on, you know, the exposure to this kind of music, and just kind of the understanding that people even who don't know about opera and who don't, who haven't really been exposed to opera, would absolutely love it, you know, if they knew more about kind of the stories and just some of the music that is in the genre.

(singer sings in foreign language) - I also thought it would be cool to bring a little bit of this opera to Southeast Minnesota to patrons and to other people in the community, because I had noticed when I first moved here, there wasn't a lot of this art form here compared to where when I was living in Italy where there's opera everywhere.

So I was very excited to try, and also bring a little bit of this Italian culture, this taste of Italy, also to Southeast Minnesota.

(singers sing in foreign language) (singer sings in foreign language) - So, "Gianni Schicchi" is actually our very first full-length opera.

We originally had an evening of opera, which was like art songs and arias, or actually, it was just arias from our favorite operas.

And then, we've done educational outreaches, which are like excerpts from "Pirates of Penzance," and several other concerts and recitals with excerpts from different operas and art songs as well.

But never a full-length opera such as this.

(singers sing in foreign language) - This is Giacomo Puccini's only comic opera, and it is hilarious.

(laughs) It's a one-act opera, it runs just about an hour, and we have a cast of about 14 to 15 singers on stage.

We are performing it at the Historic Plummer House here in Rochester.

So we are very excited to have this historic, beautiful antique setting along with this almost antique music to couple that.

It's not just, so, to talk a little bit about the performance itself, it's about this man named Gianni Schicchi, and the family, the Donati family in Italy, has lost Buoso.

He's just the patriarch of the family.

He has passed, and he has left all of his inheritance to the church, to the monks.

And the family, greedy as they are, (laughs) are not happy about this.

So they recruit Gianni Schicchi, who's, you know, a man from the countryside, to come help forge the will in their favor.

I don't wanna give away the opera, but you can imagine how it's going to turn out.

And he does some sneaky things.

I will be playing the role of Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi's daughter.

It's a really funny opera.

It's conniving, it's, (laughs) it's silly and it's a really, I think it's one of the funniest operas I've seen.

It's not just a performance, we've actually turned it into an event.

I had the idea to transport patrons to 19th-century Florence, where the opera takes place.

So, we're kind of transforming the Plummer House into this Tuscan atmosphere.

We are having some catering done by Italian restaurants in town, and we have a signatory Italian cocktail, so we truly are trying to transport people to Florence, Italy.

(laughs) So, it's a cool event.

It's not just an opera, but truly an event.

- Stef has been great about looping people in who are already in the theater community in Rochester.

So, we've got a great local community theater here in town, and we've gotten a ton of support, and a ton of help from patrons and theater goers and community theater people.

But we're always looking for more volunteers.

- If anyone wants to get involved with the company, we do hold annual auditions for the entire season.

So we'll be auditioning in Fall of 2025 for our upcoming season.

Anyone can visit our website, our email is right on there.

Sign up for our newsletter, shoot us over an email, say that you're interested.

We are always looking for volunteers to help behind the scenes.

There's a lot of work to put on an opera, especially moving props (laughs) from place to place.

So, if anyone wants to get involved, just shoot us over an email and come to our auditions in the fall, which we'll announce fairly soon.

I truly believe that opera is for everyone.

The technique is challenging, absolutely.

But I also, I mean, I am also a voice teacher, and I do teach a lot of my students who started off in musical theater, who are now transitioning into more of this classical opera technique.

And truly, I believe anybody can learn this technique, and I think it's the most challenging and satisfying thing to sing because once you're able to do it, you're like, "Man, I did that, I can sing that."

I do think it's for opera is for everybody.

(singers sing in foreign language) - We are going to be performing "The Miller's Daughter," and that is, I believe, next Summer, 2026.

We also have our madrigals event that we are going to be putting on.

That will be March of 2026, so that's gonna be on the horizon.

We do have a collaboration with Resounding Voices coming up October, I believe, of this year.

And so, but next season, I believe it is just gonna be those two main shows, as well as an educational outreach.

(singers vocalizing) I was in high school when I first became interested in classical music.

I was kind of your choir kid and did a lot of music and theater that was, tried sports, and, you know, that really wasn't my niche.

And so, from choir and being involved there, I kind of learned about some different opportunities for singing classical music, and just found, when I sang classical music, it just, it felt really natural, and it was enjoyable to me.

So, it was kind of all the way back in high school that I first became interested in classical music and opera, and, you know, doing that through my undergrad.

I went to school actually for music education.

So, went to school to be a teacher, and then wound up taking a different career path, but kind of just continued on after being involved in college with some of these ensembles and singing projects, and stuff like that.

So it just felt very kind of natural to sort of get involved with it as an adult, too.

(singer sings in foreign language) - I started becoming interested in opera very young.

My mother is from Italy, so I grew up listening to Vivaldi, you know, Beethoven, all this classical music.

And I started off playing classical piano when I was in, you know, elementary school.

And I really wanted to learn to sing.

So in junior high, I started voice lessons.

I started learning classical technique, and I really fell in love with classical singing.

Of course, I sang in the jazz band.

I, you know, dabbled in musical theater, but classical music is truly where my heart lies.

I went to Michigan State University, and I started off there on the track of doing music education, and changed my mind, and went into a completely different career path all throughout the first 10 years of my career.

And then, I got to a point where I was like, I really miss music.

And I did a 180, completely changed careers a little bit later than most, and decided I wanted to go back to school and got my master's in music education, really focused on the voice and choral conducting.

And from there, I've just been trying to live out my passion that I had when I was a child, just to be really involved in music.

This is a dream come true, absolutely.

(gentle music) (singer sings in foreign language) (lively music) (upbeat music) (cutlery clacking) (people chattering) (oil sizzles) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (people chattering) (upbeat music) - I am Kenneth Knutson.

- I'm the owner of Kenny's Oak Grill.

We've been in business for 60 years.

It's been a long, (laughs) long haul.

I worked at the Oak Grill for Jim and Jerry Kellogg back in the late '50s.

In 1959, I started working there, and as a dishwasher slash cook, you know, just learning.

And I worked there through my senior year, and then one year of junior college, and then they were in the process of building what was called the Oak Leaf down on South Main.

And when they got that completed, then I managed the original Oak Grill for them for about six months.

And then after that, that's when I bought it.

Yeah, that was something, 24-year-old kid, you know, that the only experience I had was flipping hamburgers and scrubbing floors, you know?

And so, anyway, we started, and they were really helpful, and you know, they're the only reason I'm here now, I guess, basically learned everything I knew from them to start with.

And in 1965 is when I bought it from them.

(upbeat music) And by then, I'd been married and already had a daughter, and my son was just being born 1961.

(upbeat music) We were over there about 30 years, and then, now we've been here 30 years.

(car humming) - I'm Barb Erstad, I'm an employee at Kenny's Oak Grill.

I'm 69 and a half years old.

I started with Kenny in 1973 when I was a sophomore in high school.

All three of my children have worked here.

Kileen, Evan, and Garrett.

When I first started here, I was an evening waitress, and then, as the people have changed jobs or have left, then you move up in the shifts.

One time, I was a 10 to six waitress on Friday and Saturday nights, which there was a whole nother world out there that people don't even realize.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Kenny's Oak Grill was open 24 hours a day at one time.

- It was nuts.

- [Barb] We had lots of people that had come from the bars.

We had people that had just got done work, so it was never not busy.

(oil sizzling) (cutlery clacking) - The night business didn't progress like the rest of the day business did.

And so we... And it was hard to get people to work that shift, too.

I mean, it took a special person, and anyway, we finally just decided it wasn't worth it.

(cutlery clacking) - Baked potato, hash browns, fries, potato salad.

My name is Kim Mohrfeld, and I am Kenny's daughter.

So I started working at Kenny's Oak Grill when I was a sophomore in high school.

That would've been like 1976.

Working at the Old Oak Grill, it was so tiny, and we knew everybody.

And we used to like fish nights on Friday, we'd have 'em lined up out the door.

And then, when we found out we had to come across the street, and we were gonna be about three times the size, we thought it was the worst thing in the world.

Like, how are we ever gonna do this?

- Anything else?

- I need to order- - [Kim] You know, us girls over there, we did everything.

We would take the cash register, we would peel the potatoes.

We would peel the eggs, and so over here, our work was just basically waiting on people.

- Well, again, there's so many I (indistinct) So we started it.

- The menu has changed over time.

It's gotten bigger.

(cutlery clacking) Dad has a way of coming up with different concoctions of different sandwiches, and he'll run 'em by me, and I'll just be like, oh, I don't know about that one."

But then we put it on the menu and they love it.

He kind of has that knack.

- Sounds good, water's okay for you?

- [Customer] And they spend a lot.

- Yeah, yeah, no problem.

- Thank you.

- Since I retired, a bunch of us guys come in here for breakfast once a week.

- Whenever he brings me.

(laughs) - Actually, when we were kids, you know, when it was across the street, if we ever had an extra quarter in our pocket, we would go in and get a soda or something.

All the food's always good, and the wait staff, they're fun, they're good, very good at what they do.

Step in there, Car.

- (laughs) Got dirty dishes.

(cutlery clacking) (upbeat music) - It is changed a lot.

I mean the thing that changed, of course, were the burger chains that came in, and one of the first things that happened was Robby's Burgers built right across the street from us, and it changed it for a while, and it didn't really hurt us.

I don't know if it created traffic for us, but it was a different kind of business.

The people that would eat that kind of stuff, you know, that was their thing.

You know, 15-cent burgers, and they filled a big niche, that's for sure.

♪ Don't say that ♪ (cutlery clacking) - I work in the daytime now, so a lot of the people like the Favorites Breakfast.

It's got the eggs, meat, hash browns, and then you get a choice of the toast, French toast, or pancake.

What I like most about working at Kenny's, I have to say my boss, because he's number one.

He's been a wonderful boss, very supportive through my lifetime.

- I love the day-to-day changes.

Every day is different.

I love seeing my coworkers.

We're like a big family.

I love all of my customers.

(people chattering) We did lose Mom the end of January this year, which took us all by surprise.

She kind of the glue of the family.

She was kind of the silly one of the family.

So, it has affected us a lot, - World Thompson, okay, should be ready in about 15 minutes or so.

(people chattering) Okay, thank you.

All right, bye-bye.

- [Kim] When customers maybe don't come in for a week or two, we've actually called family members to check on 'em.

And then if, you know, we do find out something is going on, we'll get together a card and send out a "Get well," or, yeah, we are like a family.

(people chattering) (lively music) (people chattering) (cutlery clacking) (singer sings in foreign language) (singer sings in foreign language) (choir sings in foreign language) (choir sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (Stef sings in foreign language) (lively music) (lively music) (lively music) (lively music) (bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds chirping)