opera
Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition Announces 2025 Winners
Filipino mezzo-soprano singer Michelle Mariposa among the winners.
Filipino mezzo-soprano singer Michelle Mariposa among the winners.
The Met Opera has announced the winners of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.
This year the five winners are as follows:
- Sadie Cheslak, 30, mezzo-soprano (Central Region; Duluth, Minnesota); The American-Scandinavian Foundation Birgit Nilsson Award
- Alissa Goretsky, 25, soprano (Midwest Region; Los Angeles, California); Fernand Lamesch Award
- Emma Marhefka, 25, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Allentown, Pennsylvania); Patricia Misslin Award
- Michelle Mariposa, 30, mezzo-soprano (Middle Atlantic Region; Quezon City, Philippines); Faith P. Geier Award
- Luke Sutliff, 28, baritone (Gulf Coast Region; Denver, Colorado); Dominique Laffont Award
Each winner received a $20,000 cash prize and the prestige, exposure, and networking opportunities that come with winning a renowned competition that has launched the careers of many of opera’s most well-known stars.
The remaining four non-winning finalists, who each receive a $10,000 cash prize, are Angel Raii Gomez, Samuel Kidd, Abigail Raiford, and Lauren Randolph.
Filipino mezzo-soprano singer Michelle Mariposa among the winners
Pinay mezzo-soprano singer Michelle Mariposa was one of the 1,500 participants and emerged as one of the twenty semifinalists. The 30-year-old Filipino-Chinese singer from Quezon City performed Gioachino Rossini’s Semiramide, and Jules Massenet’s Werther.
The Filipina actually did not focus on her passion for music her whole life, until in college. She initially set out to pursue a career in medicine with her degree in Psychology but realized that she would never handle the “mental toll” in the field. She decided to pursue her calling and hone her skills, in music. She graduated summa cum laude in both degrees.
“My goal was to grow as a musician, to know more about this field, and to accumulate connections, repertoire, events than I can sing in, techniques that will help me as a singer,” said Mariposa.
The Pinay singer earned a full scholarship at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and completed her Master’s in Voice and Opera Performance in 2023. She is currently a resident young artist at the Washington National Opera.
Prior to this, she has been making waves on the global stage, having won the Lynne Cooper Harvey Foundation Award (top prize) in the Musicians Club of Women 2024 Vocal Competition and the Sullivan Award from the Sullivan Foundation, among others.
Michelle is poised to become the first Filipina to win in the international opera stage since Evelyn Mandac in 1966. Filipino tenor Rodell Rosel from Manila also won the competition in 2005, he has also been nominated for a Grammy Award in 2018 for Best Opera Recording.
The panel of judges included Michael Heaston; Deputy General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, Gregory Henkel; Managing Director, Artistic of the San Francisco Opera, Myra Huang; Head of Music, Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, conductor Karen Kamensek, Brian Speck; Artistic Administrator of the Metropolitan Opera, and Melissa Wegner; Executive Director, Laffont Competition and Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera.
The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Grand Finals Concert was hosted by mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a 2007 competition winner. Soprano Janai Brugger, a 2012 winner, joined as guest artist.
The singers each performed two arias on the Met stage, accompanied by the Met Orchestra and conducted by Maestro Karen Kamensek.
About Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition
Founded in 1954, The Met’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is a nationwide program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in their artistic and professional development.
Each season, more than 1,400 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert—featuring the Met Orchestra, this year conducted by Carlo Rizzi—in which a small group of finalists compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career.
Since the program’s inauguration more than 70 years ago, the competition has discovered generations of star singers, including Jessye Norman, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Denyce Graves, Stephanie Blythe, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, and Ryan Speedo Green
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