Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is an annual singing competition sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera. Established in 1954, its purpose is to discover, assist, promote, and develop young opera singers. The competition is held in four stages: Districts, Regional, Semi-Final, and Final competitions. Each stage is judged by a panel of representatives from the Metropolitan Opera. There are a total of 14 Regional competitions within the United States and Canada and 41 District competitions within each Region. Winners from the District competition compete in Regionals, and then the winners of Regionals are awarded a trip to New York City where they will compete on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in the National Semi-Final Competition. Approximately 10 Semi-Finalists are chosen to compete in the Final competition; 5 of which are awarded a Grand Prize of $15,000 and the remainder of which are awarded $5,000. A large number of past competition winners in the Semi-Final and Final competitions have gone on to have major opera careers.
National Winners
1950s
- Ethel Wagner DeLong (1954)
- William Black (1956)
- Dorothy Cole Posch (1956)
- Robert Nagy (1956)
|
- Grace Bumbry (1958)
- Barbara Faulkner (1958)
- Lucille Kailer (1958)
- Barbara Leichsenring (1958)
- Jefferson Morris (1958)
|
|
1960s
|
|
- Loretta Di Franco (1965)
- Gretchen D'Armand (1965)
- Theodore Lambrinos (1965)
- Claudia Lindsey (1965)
- Maria Pellegrini Macko (1965)
- Will Roy (1965)
- Richard Stilwell (1965)
|
- Costanza Cuccaro (1967)
- Sakiko Kanamori (1967)
- Paula Page (1967)
|
1970s
|
|
|
- Jane Bunnell (1979)
- Pamela Hicks (1979)
- Dianne Iauco (1979)
- Sandra McClain (1979)
- Robert McFarland (1979)
- Jan Opalach (1979)
- Robert Wood Overman (1979)
- Natalia Rom (1979)
- Susan St. John (1979)
- Michael Talley (1979)
- Delores Ziegler (1979)
|
1980s
- Marjo Carroll (1980)
- Louise Deal-Pluymen (1980)
- John Fowler (1980)
- Kevin Langan (1980)
- Darren Nimnicht (1980)
- Lani Norskog (1980)
- Robin Reed (1980)
- Leslie Richards (1980)
- Margaret Vazquez (1980)
- Lauren Wagner (1980)
- Thomas Woodman (1980)
- Laurence Albert (1981)
- Lawrence Bakst (1981)
- Rebecca Cook (1981)
- Gail Dobish (1981)
- Gail Dubinbaum (1981)
- Susan Dunn (1981)
- Joyce Guyer (1981)
- Thomas Hampson (1981)
- Diane Kesling (1981)
- Laura Brooks Rice (1981)
- Valerie Yova (1981)
- Lucille Beer (1982)
- Angela Maria Blasi (1982)
- Pamela Coburn (1982)
- Carla Cook (1982)
- Nancy Gustafson (1982)
- Hong Hei-Kyung (1982)
- Walter MacNeil (1982)
- Sylvia McNair (1982)
- Katharine Ritz (1982)
- Kathleen Segar (1982)
- Eduardo Villa (1982)
- Harolyn Blackwell (1983)
- Linda Caple (1983)
- Jean Glennon (1983)
- Elizabeth Holleque (1983)
- Ellen Kerrigan (1983)
- Joanne Kolomyjec (1983)
- Alessandra Marc (1983)
- Cecily Nall (1983)
- Herbert Perry (1983)
- Jo Ann Pickens (1983)
- Stella Zambalis (1983)
|
- Elaine Arandes (1984)
- Philip Bologna (1984)
- Richard Croft (1984)
- Gerald Dolter (1984)
- Marcus Haddock (1984)
- Theresa Hamm (1984)
- Cynthia Lawrence (1984)
- Emily Manhart (1984)
- Lisa Saffer (1984)
- Nova Thomas (1984)
- Jonathan Welch (1984)
- Mark Baker (1986)
- Susan Bender (1986)
- Andrea Cawelti (1986)
- Mark S. Doss (1986)
- Gordon Hawkins (1986)
- Barbara Kilduff (1986)
- Kim Marie Kodes (1986)
- Marilyn Mims (1986)
- Stanford Olsen (1986)
- Deidra Palmour (1986)
- Michael Sylvester (1986)
|
- Ned Barth (1987)
- Mary Burt (1987)
- Deborah Lynn Cole (1987)
- Janet Folta (1987)
- Amanda Halgrimson (1987)
- Nikki Li Hartliep (1987)
- Frederic Kalt (1987)
- Mi-Hae Park (1987)
- Celeste Tavera (1987)
- Steven Tharp (1987)
- Blythe Walker (1987)
- Elizabeth Carter (1988)
- Richard Drews (1988)
- Renée Fleming (1988)
- Haijing Fu (1988)
- Susan Graham (1988)
- Ben Heppner (1988)
- Wendy Hoffman (1988)
- Carolyn James (1988)
- Lynda Keith (1988)
- Heidi Grant Murphy (1988)
- LeRoy Villanueva (1988)
|
1990s
- Jeanne-Michelle Charbonnet (1990)
- Steven Combs (1990)
- Catherine Cook (1990)
- Adrienne Dugger (1990)
- Clare Mueller (1990)
- Susan Owen (1990)
- Phyllis Pancella (1990)
- Kitt Reuter-Foss (1990)
- Rebecca Russell (1990)
- Young-Ok Shin (1990)
- Roy Cornelius Smith (1990)
- Youmi Cho (1992)
- Michelle DeYoung (1992)
- Yvonne Gonzales (1992)
- Clare Gormley (1992)
- Michaela Gurevich (1992)
- Marie Plette (1992)
- Christopher Schaldenbrand (1992)
- Tony Stevenson (1992)
|
- Norah Amsellem (1994)
- John Robert Autry (1994)
- Stephanie Blythe (1994)
- Sheryl H. Cohen (1994)
- Nathan Gunn (1994)
- Olga Makarina (1994)
- Mark Edward McCrory (1994)
- John J. Osborn (1994)
- Svetlana Serdar (1994)
- Daniel Sumegi (1994)
|
- Leah Creek (1996)
- Tamara Lynn Hummel (1996)
- Daniele LeBlanc (1996)
- Lester Lynch (1996)
- Elizabeth Norman (1996)
- Eric Owens (1996)
- Jami Rogers (1996)
- Jung-Hack Seo (1996)
- Lynette Tapia (1996)
- Eric Cutler (1998)
- Philip Horst (1998)
- Kyle Ketelsen (1998)
- Mariateresa Magisano (1998)
- Keith Phares (1998)
- Jane Shivik (1998)
- Indra Thomas (1998)
- David Walker (1998)
- Chen-Ye Yuan (1998)
- Maria Zifchak (1998)
|
2000s
- Elizabeth Batton (2000)
- Esther Heideman (2000)
- Lindsay Killian (2000)
- Latonia Moore (2000)
- Todd Wilander (2000)
- Lawrence Brownlee (2001)
- Melissa Citro (2001)
- Rachelle Durkin (2001)
- Jesús Garcia (2001)
- Kristine Winkler (2001)
- Carolyn Betty (2002)
- Philippe Castagner (2002)
- Twyla Robinson (2002)
- James Valenti (2002)
|
- Meredith Arwady (2004)
- Claudia Huckle (2004)
- Laquita Mitchell (2004)
- Paul Corona (2006)
- Holli Harrison (2006)
- Katherine Jolly (2006)
- Marjorie Owens (2006)
- Donovan Singletary (2006)
|
- Jamie Barton (2007)
- Michael Fabiano (2007)
- Angela Meade (2007)
- Ryan McKinny (2007)
- Alek Shrader (2007)
- Ryan Smith (2007)
- Amber L. Wagner (2007)
- Erich René Barbera (2008)
- Jennifer Johnson (2008)
- Daveda Karanas (2008)
- Simone Osborne (2008)
- Edward Parks (2008)
- Paul Appleby (2009)
- Anthony Roth Costanzo (2009)
- Sung Eun Lee (2009)
- Nadine Sierra (2009)
|
2010s
- Leah Crocetto (2010)
- Lori Guilbeau (2010)
- Elliot Madore (2010)
- Nathaniel Peake (2010)
- Rachel Willis-Sørensen (2010)
- Joseph Barron (2011)
- Ryan Speedo Green (2011)
- Michelle Johnson (soprano)Michelle Johnson (2011)
- Joseph Lim (2011)
- Philippe Sly (2011)
External links