Let's Hear It for the Five Winners of the Met's 2025 Laffont Competition!

Imagine being a rising young opera singer and getting to sing two solos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, chosen from nearly 1500 applicants and the more than 900 singers who made it into the earlier rounds of the Met's Laffont competition from across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

And picture receiving $20,000 for your efforts and the prestige, exposure and networking opportunities that come with it.

That's what happened for sopranos Alissa Goretsky (Midwest region) and Emma Marhefka (Rocky Mountain region), mezzos Sadie Cheslak (Central region) and Michelle Mariposa (Middle Atlantic region), and baritone Luke Sutliff (Gulf Coast region). They took top honors in the Met's Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition--formerly known as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions since its founding in 1954.

The other finalists were tenor Angel Raii Gomez (Middle Atlantic region), baritone Samuel Kidd (Western region), soprano Abigail Raiford (Eastern region) and mezzo Lauren Randolph (Eastern region).

The concert featured such famous arias as Tatiana's "Letter Scene" from EUGENE ONEGIN, Figaro's "Largo al Factotum" from IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Tonio's "Ah! Mes amis!' from LA FILLE DU REGIMENT, Susanna's "Deh vieni non tardar" from LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and Amelia's "Morro, ma prima in grazia" from UN BALLO IN MASCHERA

The crowd of thousands cheered on in the opera house on Sunday March 16, hosted by mezzo Jamie Barton (a 2007 winner of the competition). She was joined by soprano Janai Brugger (a 2012 winner, who performed an aria from CARMEN and "Summertime" from PORGY AND BESS while the judge deliberated) and the Met's great orchestra conducted by Karen Kamensek.

Earlier iterations of the competition--this was the 71st--were critical in introducing many of today's opera stars, including, Renee Fleming, Sondra Radvonovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ryan Speedo Green, Lisetta Oropesa and Nadine Sierra, to name just a few.

The panel of judges for the Grand Finals Concert were Deputy General Manage of the Met, Michael Heaston; Artistic Managing Director of the San Francisco Opera, Gregory Henkel; Head of Music for the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Myra Huang; Maestro Kamensek; the Met's Artistic Administrator, Brian Speck; and Executive Director of the Lindemann Program and Laffont Competition, Melissa Wagner.

Caption: (from left) Sadie Cheslak, Alissa Goretsky, Luke Sutliff, Emma Marhefka and Michelle Mariposa.

Credit: Natalie Powers/Met Opera