By Marion Filler
Soprano Franchesca Henry, 27, works hard to develop her voice. She teaches privately and online, lands parts in local productions, and has studied and performed in Italy. She also has a steady church gig with Calvary Episcopal Church in Summit, and a part-time job at Agricola in Morristown to help keep the lights on.
The extraordinary result of all her efforts will be in the spotlight when she sings Giacomo Puccini‘s Ch’il Bel Sogno from La Rondine (The Swallow), as a contestant at Morristown Onstage on March 4, 2025.
“It was (Puccini’s) first opera, and is not well known,” she explained. “But this aria is in the first act and you’re given a kind of treat almost as soon as you sit down. The song is like a competition piece,” a favorite among opera contestants because it is so challenging to perform, she said.
Henry is among 16 finalists who will compete at the Mayo Performing Arts Center for cash prizes, in the Morris Educational Foundation’s 18th annual fundraiser for the Morris School District. The competition is open to people who live, work or study in Morristown, Morris Township, or Morris Plains.
Ch’il Bel Sogno (Beautiful Dream) is a “very moving piece, we call it a rubato,” Henry said. “It’s almost like speaking. And then it becomes very still. There are a lot of times when it moves forward, almost like it’s imitating speech, but then you have these still moments when I’m singing high A’s, B’s and C’s.”
“Changing from this moving – singing- speaking to this legato, this stretched-out singing, and finding the vowel sounds to make them the most beautiful and also understood,” is hard she admitted. “But the song is fabulous.”
The aria is about love; it’s by Puccini, after all. A courtesan fantasizes about the possibility of a chaste romance, a new relationship. Henry is the Swallow or the Rondine of the title, who flies towards the sun and happiness, yet may never find it.
A Bolivian American, Henry was born in Maryland and started singing when she was just 2 years old.
“My mom paid a lot of attention to me. She sang in a Bolivian cover band at the time, and I would just come out on the stage and join her.”
Henry took lessons as a child and studied voice for many years, and has performed with the Bronx Opera in New York and the New Jersey Light Opera in Chatham. She also participates in Dreamality, Inc., a nonprofit in Parsippany that offers music education to children in disenfranchised communities, and to the developmentally disabled.
However, the road to becoming a professional opera singer verges on the impossible.
“A lot of people think opera is so ancient that no one likes it. No. There are so many young people like myself who love opera and sing opera,” Henry countered.
To prove her point, she recently entered the Laffont Competition, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera, as one of several thousand aspiring singers from the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The requirements are grueling, and when all is said and done, 10 finalists are selected and their careers are virtually guaranteed. In the New York District, sopranos abounded. How tough is it to make the cut?
“Last year they compared it to getting Taylor Swift tickets,” Henry quipped.
Sixteen top amateur acts from Greater Morristown will compete at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on March 4, 2025 for cash prizes at the 18th annual Morristown Onstage. Presented by the Morris Educational Foundation, the show benefits programs in the Morris School District. Tickets are $43-$95, available online or at MPAC, 100 South St., 973-539-8008.
MORE COVERAGE OF MORRISTOWN ONSTAGE 2025