Selina Fernandez made a confession as she rehearsed for “Belle Nuit — A Night of Musical Theater,” Stetson Opera Theatre’s fall show this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 20-21, at Feasel Rehearsal Hall.

“I never in a million years thought I would be singing opera, but here I am,” said the senior vocal performance major.

Fernandez grew up in Miami in a musical home “with my mom playing piano, and she used to sing a lot,” she said. “But my mom got thyroid cancer and having surgery kind of stopped that. So she pushed me into doing what she wanted to do.”

Fernandez played violin in middle school and high school and, she said, “I was a Disney fanatic, and still am. I always dreamed of performing with Disney somehow, but it was always the old, classical Disney that caught my attention. Seeing that opera was similar in a way is what caused me to pursue this.”

Stetson Opera Theatre’s fall production will feature almost the entire third act of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffman)” by German-French composer Jacques Offenbach, who died in 1880 shortly before his opera’s premiere. The cast will perform the opera in French and without costumes.

The 31-member troupe also will perform songs from the Broadway musicals “Hairspray,” “Into the Woods,” “Kismet,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “Sister Act” (which was made into a stage musical from the 1992 movie).

Vocalists will be backed by a pianist for the opera works, and an ensemble consisting of piano, guitar, bass and drums for the musical pieces.

Fernandez, a mezzo-soprano, made another confession: “A lot of people I know do not really enjoy listening to opera, or they’ve never really heard it and they think it’s outdated.”

But she and Stetson Opera Theatre colleagues Kat Kirby-Kopczynski and Jacob LyteHaven, as well as Russell Franks, Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera Theatre at Stetson, believe opera has more of a foothold among young people than may be apparent.

Franks noted that this past summer Kirby-Kopczynski and Fernandez attended the Vienna Summer Music Festival, a program that includes master classes, lessons and performance opportunities in vocal arts for those selected through a competitive audition process.

“There were about 40 or 50 vocalists there from all over the United States and other countries, and that’s just one program,” said Franks, who is director and production designer of the fall show. “And there’s probably hundreds of these programs.”

Maybe those numbers don’t match the number of young people aspiring to be the next Ariana Grande or Lil Wayne, but Kirby-Kopczynski noted that such programs “don’t accept everyone, so there are more applicants than those accepted. It really does show that for a number of young people, this is what a lot of us want to do.”

Kirby-Kopczynski grew up in Tallahassee in a musical household – her dad “was in a rock band and was an amazing guitarist” (until arthritis limited his playing ability), and she inherited his love for musical theater. It was Kirby-Kopczynski’s high school choir director who encouraged her to take private classical voice lessons.

“After my first lesson our two, I realized that type of singing was better for me and fit my voice better,” Kirby-Kopczynski said. “I still love musical theater – it’s still really fun – but I made the switch to classical voice. My career goal is to travel the world while performing opera.”

LyteHaven, a senior tenor and vocal performance and piano performance major from Niceville, said, “I obviously listen to other music besides classical music, but I feel classical music has more of an impact on its audience, and so it speaks to me more as a profession.”

Franks may have had a sly agenda in programming “Belle Nuit, ô Nuit d’Amour,” the title piece of Stetson Opera Theatre’s fall show, as the opening number. Perhaps Franks, a Stetson grad who has sung over forty major operatic roles and performed in over a thousand concerts, is hoping to show audience members they are more familiar with opera than they may realize.

“The opening of act three of ‘The Tales of Hoffman’ is the famous barcarolle,” Franks says. Barcarolle is a term for a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece composed in that style. Offenbach’s “Belle Nuit,” which features lyrics by librettist by Jules Barbier, is often referred to as “the barcarolle.”

“It’s music that almost everyone has heard at some point in their life,” Franks said. “It’s probably been in Pizza Hut commercials.”

A duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano, the barcarolle will be sung by Kirby-Kopczynski and Fernandez.

While the fall show “is important,” Franks said, it’s also “a training ground, and students will take what they learn this semester and apply it next semester.” That includes a spring main stage production of a Ravel opera, which will be the first time the troupe has ever performed a complete opera in French.

Fernandez hopes people who may be opera-shy will be open to attending “Belle Nuit.”

“I always tell them to just give opera a shot,” she said. “You never know if you’re going to like it or not. You might end up enjoying it more than you think and want to listen to it every single day.”

Other members of Stetson Opera Theatre include: Payton Ballesteros, Adam Benton, Victoria Bishop, Damien Bleus, Anthony Capizzi, Nicole Carrion, Alesandra Collins, Alessandra Fahey, Laura Fernandez, Melissa Feurich, Haley Fust, Miranda Graham, Sarah Hallman, Matthew Harris, Colby Harter, Nicholas Ikegami, Colleen Martinez, Christen Mayer, Cole Monica, Bradley Monroe, Vanessa Moya, Carlos Nolla, Lauren Prestifilippo, Deante Samples, Jason Schmidt, Amy Walton, Leah Winstanley and Max Wolf.

Musicians for “Belle Nuit” include pianist Kristie Born, pianist Barbara Larson, guitarist Justin Dalisay, bassist Sean Strott and drummer Daniel Castellanos. Choreographer is Grace Song.

If You Go

Stetson Opera Theatre will stage “Belle Nuit — A Night of Musical Theater” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at Feasel Rehearsal Hall in McMahan Hall, corner of North Woodland Boulevard and East Michigan Avenue, DeLand. Admission is $10 adults, $5 youth/students, and free with Stetson ID.