Laffont Competition
The Metropolitan Opera
• The Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) invited Mexico to become its 41st audition district in 2017
• The Mexico District of the Competition is sponsored by the San Miguel MetOpera Trust.
• The first Competition in Mexico took place in San Miguel de Allende on November 8, 2018.
• The Mexico District celebrated its fifth anniversary on March 19, 2023
•156 young Mexican singers have been heard by judges certified by the Metropolitan Opera.
•27 singers have been named winners & moved on to the regional round in New Orleans; most often their first international competition
•10 singers have received prize awards in New Orleans.
•2 singers have reached the semi-final round of the competition & have sung on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House.
•In March, 2020, soprano Denis Velez became the first Mexican singer named a Grand National Finals Winner of the Competition on the MetOpera stage, with a prize award of $20,000USD.
•Soprano Yunuet Laguna, 2018 winner, made her solo debut on the stage of the MetOpera in March, 2022.
•5 singers have had the experience of being long-term young artists in residence with major American opera companies
San Miguel MetOpera Trust and its generous expat community sponsors have raised more than $200,000USD in support of the Competition
The name of the Competition was changed in 2021 to the Eric & Dominique Laffont Competition, in honor of the transformative gift of this family to the MetOpera.
