MEXICO DISTRICT LAFFONT COMPETITION
• 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 SIXTH anniversary, — March 29, 2024
•288 young Mexican singers have been heard by judges certified by the Metropolitan Opera.
•30 singers have been named winners & moved on to the regional round in New Orleans; most often their first international competition
•11 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 $250,000USD 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.
