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.