A Filipino Singer Has Won Big at Prestigious U.S. Metropolitan Opera Competition
Filipino-Chinese mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa was one of the five winners of the esteemed Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, held at Lincoln Center, New York, last March 16. She is the third Filipino, and the first Filipino mezzo-soprano, to win one of the top prizes, after Evelyn Mandac (soprano) in 1966 and Rodell Rosel (tenor) in 2005. Filipino-Mexican Paul Corona (bass) won in 2006.
To reach the end of the competition, Mariposa endured several rounds of singing, including winning the districts, regionals, semi-finals, and finals. She tells Esquire Philippines that she prepared four strong arias, an operatic song, for each round. The contest is open to US-based singers 18 to 30 years old.
Michelle Mariposa was one of the five winners of the esteemed Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, held at Lincoln Center, New York
"My preparations for the Met involved four main parts,” Mariposa explains. “First, honing my vocal technique so I can execute a technically flawless performance; second, parsing out the piece dramatically, so I can convey the aria’s context, emotions, text; third, practicing risk-taking of sorts, so that every performance is a new one, is unique, is your very own; and fourth, disciplining the mind, such that in performance, I am in the present, in the zone, not worrying about a certain high note or passage, but just creating at the moment." The singer also emphasized that she adds originality to every performance. "After all, everyone can be a good singer but there is only one you."
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Mariposa is currently with the Washington National Opera as a Cafritz Young Artist. She made her debut with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where she was awarded the Richard Gaddes Career Award. She has also worked with the Haymarket Opera and completed a stint at the Chicago Opera Theater and the Chicago College of Performing Arts. Her other accolades include the Lynne Cooper Harvey Foundation Award from the Musicians Club of Women 2024 Vocal Competition and the Sullivan Award from the Sullivan Foundation, which support their awardees’ training for five years. Before relocating to the US, Mariposa won the 2019 National Music Competition for Young Artists.
The opera singer also made headlines in 2021 for achieving a second summa cum laude award for Voice from the University of the Philippines. (Her first was a Psychology degree.) She later took up a Master's degree in Voice and Opera Performance at Northwestern University.
"I got into opera through my voice teacher, Chris Arceo,” she saysa. “I was a young singer who was more in the world of art song, new music, and early music, and he was the one who taught me how to sing operatically, which is basically vibrating on each note to get the full potential of one’s sound and voice.”
"[In Northwestern], I studied with Stephen Smith, whose book [Arceo] referenced a lot in our lessons. So it was a good continuation in terms of my singing technique. With Steve, I discovered what it meant and felt to believe in my voice and the process of the technique.”
Opera in the Philippines
Like many artists and athletes before her, Mariposa moved to the US for bigger opportunities.
“Opera is expensive. Even here in the US, its funding depends largely on individual donors rather than ticket sales,” she explains, adding that the sets, costumes, music, lights, and the rest of production can accrue massive costs. “So, in a country where there is not much state support for the arts, opera is not as feasible.”
That said, not all opera singers live like Maria Callas in her prime. “Being an opera singer, even abroad, is not easy,” Mariposa says, adding that many of these singers juggle multiple jobs to sustain training, competition, and audition expenses, as well as hair and makeup.
“Some organizations abroad help singers financially…I’ve had the fortune of working with Victor Asunción, the chair of the Fil-Am Music Foundation, which has the goal of helping upcoming Fil-Am musicians through paid performance opportunities,” Mariposa shares. “All this to say, there are more avenues for financial support for artists and musicians abroad than in the Philippines.”
“My goal is to make a living out of operatic singing," says Michelle Mariposa
However, the young singer still believes that the Philippines may support the arts eventually. “Like the Philippines can start with mounting operas in smaller theaters and arranging scores for chamber ensembles or piano instead of orchestra, or set designs can be minimal but still effective.”
“My goal is to make a living out of operatic singing, and the lofty version of that is to sing leading roles in major opera houses around the world, for as long as I can,” Mariposa says. “Of course someday, I would also love to perform in operas in the Philippines, and to premiere new Filipino operas around the world.” She also dreams of commissioning and touring new Filipino works for voice and piano or chamber ensembles worldwide.
Mariposa still has one more year with the Washington National Opera. This summer, she will also return to the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where she has been entrusted with a comprimario role in one opera and understudying leading roles in two other operas.
"All this training really is about getting real-world experience of being in an opera production," she says.
