Marie Osmond is a little bit opera, too, as she comes to Minnesota for a holiday show

We all know that Marie Osmond is a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll. Did you know she's a little bit opera, too?

What?

That's right. She's been taking classical voice lessons on the down low for 20 years.

Oh, Marie, the secrets you keep from us. Next thing you know she'll tell us how much weight she really lost.

But she called the other day to talk about something unexpected from her — classical music.

"I'm not trained; I am schooled," she explained. "Am I the greatest opera singer in the world? Absolutely not. But to go from 'Paper Roses' to 'Nessun Dorma' required a lot of work, and it was fun."

She will demonstrate her aria chops in concert Saturday at the Mystic Lake Casino showroom in Prior Lake.

With her usual grace, precise enunciation and burnished soprano voice, she sings Puccini, Handel and Dvorak as well as music by Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rodgers & Hammerstein plus, "The Prayer" and "What a Wonderful World."

No need to call the Met Opera for an audition, but rest assured that Marie — even a diva in training needs only one name — will include arias along with holiday tunes in her Christmas concert Saturday.

"We're going to do it all," said Osmond, 62, who offered a solo holiday album in 2007. "I've been associated with holiday shows my entire life. Whether it was overseas with Bob Hope entertaining the troops or being the girl Osmond, I was invited to everyone else's Christmas show.

"The last two years hasn't felt like Christmas. There is something about going back to a live orchestra and live music that, you know, it's not perfect but there's something magical about it."

Issuing an album so late in December seems like trying to steal a page out of the hip-hop playbook of Dr. Dre and Jay-Z. Not so, she said.

"You'd think I'd buy country and pop — and I did buy those. But I was really interested in Broadway tunes and operas and things like that."

Oprah was an impetus

Osmond said she wasn't confident singing arias, but she was determined.

"I enjoy trying things and putting myself out there. Some of it, I took license to add a little bit of my emotion to it, which might be my country/pop background."

Her late son Michael, who died in 2010, actually preferred her singing opera around the house.

What a surprise from someone whose last record, 2016's "Music Is Medicine," was a country project. Remember she started as a teen recording artist with "Paper Roses," a country chart-topper back in 1973.

Undaunted, Osmond has been a careerist for six decades. She's done television, Vegas and Broadway ("King and I," "Sound of Music"). She's authored three books, including one about post-partum depression — all of which landed on the New York Times bestseller lists.

In 2019-20, she was a cohost on CBS' "The Talk," which gave her visibility during the pandemic even though many of the shows were Zoomed from home.

Motorcycle Marie

During the pandemic, Osmond also has spent time doing what some other empty nesters do — traveling around the United States with her husband, Stephen Craig, whom she remarried in 2011, 26 years after they divorced.

"I've had a motorcycle license since I was 16. So I've been riding forever," she said. "I haven't ridden in the last three or four weeks because I've been so busy putting the show together but when I get home, oh yeah.

"When we go camping, we take it up in the rural areas. I'm not a freeway driver. Taking it up in the mountains and going on the roads there, that is so fun for me."

During the pandemic, Osmond showed up in Nutrisystem ads and this month in a Lifetime movie, "A Fiance for Christmas."

As the thrice-married mother to seven living children (ages 19 to 38), she knows something about fiances. One of her daughters, Jessica, is in a same-sex marriage.

"We have a group family text that goes 24/7. My kids are so different and so diverse in who they are. The thing I love about them is they are so loving and loyal to each other. I wish the world could be that way, and let people believe what they believe and do what they want to do, just accept people for what they believe in. That's my kids."

"You get to that age where your children need to be in their homes. We'll probably go around and visit everybody. That's what my parents did, and it works."

No plans with Donny

OK, can't resist the obvious: How often does she talk to her brother Donny, who was her partner on ABC-TV's "Donny & Marie" show from 1976-79 and in a lengthy Vegas residency that ended in November 2019?

"I really haven't. He's a sibling. How often do you talk to your siblings?"

"I never worked with my siblings."

"I have been so busy, and he's been busy with his life. I'm so happy for him. He wants to continue a residency. It was great while I was raising my children, but there are so many things I'd love to do which require being on the road or being on a movie set or taking time out to write.

"We're very different, even musically now. I love the full-on symphony, and he loves the smoke and glitter. Not that I don't love that and I can do that, too. But I just love to keep trying things. And it gives me time to go see my grandkids' football games and go up to the mountains and go camping with my husband and sightseeing."

Will Marie and Donny ever work together again?

"There's only so many times you can sing 'I'm Leaving It All Up to You' and 'Make the World Go Away.' I think we did a nice job of that for 11 years in Vegas.

"There's nothing in the future. I'll never say never but probably not."

When: 8 p.m. Sat.

Where: Mystic Lake Casino showroom, Prior Lake.