About AMICI

AMICI, Italian for ‘friends,’ is the support group for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in the New Orleans District and Gulf Coast Regional Auditions.

The Metropolitan Opera of New York began their program of young singer auditions in 1954. The program was originally called “Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions” and is now called The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.

The competition has 39 districts organized into 12 regions. The New Orleans Region (originally the New Orleans-Shreveport-Mobile Region) was founded in 1956 and is now called the Gulf Coast Region, consisting of the Houston, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans Districts. At one point the Region consisted of five districts: Houston, Mexico, Florida, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans. 

The district and regional level auditions are run and underwritten by local volunteers, who also raise funds in their local communities to cover audition expenses and offer monetary prizes. Winners of each district level proceed to the regional auditions. Winners of the regionals compete in the national semifinals and finals at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

The organization has raised and awarded more than $15,000 every year in prizes. Between 30 and 40 AMICI volunteers staff the weekend of auditions at Loyola University’s Roussel Hall on Saint Charles Avenue. Auditions take place in the late winter/early spring depending upon the dates set by the Metropolitan Opera for its National Semifinals and Finals

During the year, AMICI board members meet to work out the details of the upcoming district and region auditions and, in cooperation with the other districts in the region, determine scheduling and raise prize money. AMICI also hosts a fundraising musicale each summer.

History of the Laffont Competition

“Starting in 1935, the Metropolitan Opera began a series of auditions (The Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air) that were broadcast live on NBC Radio over a period of several weeks. In 1954, the Met created the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) Auditions as a means of finding and nurturing promising young opera singers from across the country. By 1958, districts and regions had been created across the country to serve as the funding and operating arms of the MONC auditions.” [Source: Wikipedia] 

According to the Met’s website: 

The Met’s Laffont Competition is designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers and is sponsored by hundreds of donors and volunteers from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Some of today’s greatest singers got their starts in the competition, including Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Emily D’Angelo, Michael Fabiano, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Ryan Speedo Green, Lisette Oropesa, Eric Owens, and Nadine Sierra.

In 2021, the competition became the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition

In recognition of a generous gift from the Laffont family, the Met’s nationwide vocal competition—known since its founding in 1954 as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions—begins a new chapter as the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Mrs. Laffont, an Advisory Director on the Met Board, has spent many hours volunteering with the auditions over the last 20 years, and she and her late husband, Eric, have long been among the program’s most dedicated supporters.

The Competition is grateful to its donors for prizes at the national level and to the Tobin Endowment for the Mrs. Edgar Tobin Award, given to each first-place region winner.

Support for this program is generously provided by the Charles H. Dyson Endowment Fund at the Metropolitan Opera.

For more information, please refer to the Met’s official website