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From Kalona to the Paris Opera: Jessica Faselt’s soaring voice carries Washington County to the world stage
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WASHINGTON — When dramatic soprano Jessica Faselt steps onto the stage of the Paris Opera this November, she’ll be thousands of miles from home — but her heart will still be rooted in the quiet fields of Washington County.
Faselt, who grew up near Kalona and attended Mid-Prairie schools, will make her European operatic debut this fall, singing Helmwige in Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), part of Richard Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle. It’s a career milestone for the internationally acclaimed singer, one that began in small-town Iowa with a big voice that refused to blend into the background.
“I always sang in choir,” Faselt said. “But the whole point in choir is to blend your voice with everybody. That was the problem I was constantly having, they were telling me like ‘your voice was sticking out, you're being too loud.’”
At the time, teachers urged her to sing more softly. While she says she did learn to blend more over time, she did not quiet her natural talent. Instead, she leaned into what made her different.
“When I was a junior in high school, I sang my first solo — O Holy Night — and I remember people telling me afterward that my voice made them cry,” she said. “That really stuck with me. It showed me how the human voice can move people.”
After graduating from Mid-Prairie High School in 2010, Faselt studied vocal performance at the University of Iowa, where she discovered opera. She later earned her master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and began a professional journey that would take her to some of the most prestigious stages in the United States.
In 2018, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a competition often described as “American Idol for opera.” That win earned her a coveted spot in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where she trained and performed for three years — part of that time under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Opera was hit very hard during COVID, but I was lucky to be in an educational program that could keep going,” she said. “It was a great experience, even in such a strange time.”
After completing the program in 2021, Faselt began performing full time across the country, appearing with major companies including the Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her signature role has become Helmwige, one of the warrior maidens in Wagner’s The Valkyrie — and it’s the same part she’ll sing in Paris.
“There’s nothing like being on stage and hearing the famous Ride of the Valkyries start,” she said.
Thanks to Bugs Bunny’s interpretation of Ride of the Valkyries in the Looney Tunes episode “What’s Opera, Doc” Faselt said, “Everyone knows that music — even if they don’t realize it. I’ll hum a few notes and people go, ‘Oh, that one!’”
Faselt’s path to the Paris Opera began last year while she was on tour with the Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra, performing Die Walküre in concert across Europe. During one of those performances, a representative of Paris Opera happened to be in the audience.
“After the concert, a representative came backstage to speak with me,” Faselt recalled. “Shortly after, they contacted my agent. That was how I got this job — it was essentially a live audition.”
Being invited to perform with one of Europe’s leading opera houses is, she said, a true honor. She’s especially proud to represent American singers on such a historic stage.
“I’ve heard from many colleagues that the Paris Opera doesn’t often cast Americans,” she said. “So for them to bring me over for a role I’ve become known for — that means so much. It’s a huge milestone.”
The engagement will keep her in Paris for nearly two months, with rehearsals leading up to a run of performances in November 2025. While rehearsals and shows will keep her plenty busy, Faselt hopes to find time to explore the city while she is there.
“It’s important to me to get to know the place I’m in — the people, the culture,” she said. “That keeps me inspired as an artist.”
For all the glamour of an international career, Faselt finds her sense of balance much closer to home. After several years in New York City, she returned to Iowa and decided to make Washington County her home base.
Before the pandemic, Faselt said there used to be an unspoken pressure to live in New York or another coastal city if you were serious about opera. After a general shift in this thinking within her field, Faselt considered putting down roots somewhere other than New York.
With support of her family, a community she loves, and an airport nearby, Faselt said it just made sense to come back to where she first discovered her love for singing.
She hopes her journey shows young Iowans — especially young women — that ambition and artistry can grow anywhere with a lot of hard work and plenty of support.
While Faselt says she didn’t grow up in a musical family, she did grow up in one that supported her fiercely and that made a huge difference. While that support is obvious when she is home from performances and they are all together for brunch, it is also apparent while she is abroad.
Her parents often travel to see her perform — from Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall to regional productions across the country.
“They’ve been so supportive,” she said. “When I performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, my parents came out. That was such a special night.”
With a determination to follow her passion, supportive roots, and countless hours of training, Faselt continues to chase after what she feels she was designed to do. From Kalona to the Met and now to Paris, no matter how far she travels, she said, her heart remains at home.
“I’m so thankful my voice takes me all over the world,” she said. “But Iowa is where I find balance. It’s home.”
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
