Raison d’Etre Opera is a new opera company in Minneapolis. And it’s for singers 55 and older.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards can still pack stadiums with the Rolling Stones, and 90-plus Willie Nelson and 83-year-old Bob Dylan recently teamed up for a tour. But the classical music industry doesn’t seem to hold the same respect for its elders.

Soprano Debra Gilroy noticed.

“I’m over 55,” she said recently. “What I’ve found with both myself and a lot of wonderful colleagues was that it was getting more and more difficult for us to find jobs and to be cast in roles. It was just getting to be really frustrating, really demoralizing.

“I was hearing this over and over again in conversations with others. People were starting to doubt not only their abilities, but their self-worth. Because the music part of it and singing is just tied so innately to the self.”

For a lot of people, singing is their raison d’etre, or reason for being. So Gilroy founded a new Minneapolis-based company, Raison d’Etre Opera.

“I thought it would be really cool to have an opera company for those of us 55 and over,” she said. “That would be for people who were still working, still training and were still highly interested in pursuing the art form.”

Raison d’Etre Opera completed its first season last spring with a production at St. Paul’s 480 Arts of Stephen Paulus’ opera “The Village Singer,” after presenting an eclectic recital and a concert version of the opera at Minneapolis’ Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church.

Now it’s beginning a new season with a world-renowned collaborator.

American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, 79 is a six-time Grammy nominee who’s performed at most of the world’s major opera houses, establishing a reputation as one of the masters of the great trouser roles and the bel canto heroines of Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini.

The semiretired superstar still periodically performs recitals like the one she’ll offer at Minneapolis’ St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral Saturday as a benefit for Raison d’Etre Opera and local hunger relief organizations.

It’s part of a nine-day Minnesota residency for von Stade, sponsored by Minneapolis-based foundation Listen for Life. It also includes recitals in Rochester, Stillwater and St. Paul, and master classes in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Northfield. Some proceeds will go toward Raison d’Etre Opera and St. Croix Valley Opera, others toward homelessness prevention and assistance.

Tuesday night’s master class at Hamline University will focus upon seasoned singers like those who work with Raison d’Etre. Perhaps one will be Jim Ahrens, a 67-year-old tenor with 45 years of professional experience. He calls the company “an artistic lifesaver.”

“It gives me a chance to practice my craft when few other companies are willing to do so,” he said. “It’s a company run by professionals, who hire experienced professionals to put on good works for the audience. And it’s fun.”

Soprano Lucy Thrasher feels similarly.

“I had the experience of being cast as the lead in Paulus’ ‘The Village Singer,’” she said. “The role was about an aging soprano being replaced by a young singer, and she doesn’t take it well. It describes so many mature singers. Still got something to say, something to offer, but nowhere to do it,” she said. “Performing a work with aging as the theme — with several singers of a certain age as well as some fine young singers — was such a rewarding and joyful experience for me. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

This season, the company will perform concerts at assisted-living facilities and veterans organizations, present a Valentine’s Day fundraiser, mentor youth through an adaptation of “The Bremen Town Musicians,” and present a fully staged production of Virgil Thomson’s “The Mother of Us All,” an opera about Susan B. Anthony and the fight for women’s right to vote, with a libretto by Gertrude Stein.

There will also be a benefit dinner this weekend for Raison d’Etre Opera with von Stade and pianist Martin Katz, 6:30 p.m. Friday at “The Mary Tyler Moore House,” 2104 Kenwood Pkwy., Mpls. Tickets are $1,000.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.

For tickets to recitals and master classes, visit listenforlife.org.

7:30 p.m. Sat., St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Mpls.; $25-$100.

3:30 p.m. Sun., Christ United Methodist Church, 400 5th Av. SW., Rochester; $20-$50.

7 p.m. Mon., Trinity Lutheran Church, 115 N. 4th St., Stillwater; $10-$100.

5:30 p.m. Sept. 19 (including master class); Wells Pianos, 408 S. Snelling Av., St. Paul; $100.

9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Thu.; Ultan Recital Hall, 2106 S. 4th St., Mpls.; free, but reservations required.

7 p.m. Tue.; Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Av., St. Paul; $40.

7 p.m. Sept. 20; Urness Recital Hall, St. Olaf College, Northfield; free.