Rocky Mountain Region

Congratulations to 2025 Rocky Mountain Region winner Emma Marhefka for being one of the winners of this year's Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Grand Finals! Colorado-Wyoming District Director Chris Mohr had a chance to catch up with Emma this Summer in Santa Fe:

[Photo left by Natalie Powers]

Soprano Emma Marhefka was in the apprentice program with Arizona Opera when she entered the Laffont Competition last December. It’s been a trifecta year for her, winning the Grand National Finals at the Met by way of the Rocky Mountain Region, being invited into the Met's ultra-prestigious Lindemann Young Artists Program, and suddenly being granted the role of Musetta in La Boheme for all performances at the Santa Fe Opera after another singer withdrew. Chris Mohr caught up with her in Santa Fe in the middle of her run.

Chris: Emma, have you sung all your life, even as a little girl?

Emma: I’ve been singing all my life. Nowhere in my brain did I ever think of opera, but I grew up in a very musical family. I was very serious about getting into musicals, so when I was eleven, my mom said, if you are really serious about this, you should take voice lessons. My first teacher, a retired opera singer, listened to me belt out some songs, actually just screaming, and she said, honey, that’s not singing. She introduced me to classical singing, and after a while, singing Bellini art songs with these gorgeous melodies and then singing opera in college, I gradually realized, I want to do opera. It scratched the same itch as musical theatre, but in a more meaningful way.

Chris: We came to know you when you were an apprentice artist at Arizona Opera. Can you say what it was like to walk into the Met Competition?

Emma: I had competed for four years, and it’s always nice to have an audience to give us some energy. I was singing for Arizona Opera, so I auditioned and won in Phoenix in December. Then, in February, I flew into Denver for the Region finals. The venue was so lovely [so] to sing in that beautiful church, [with] that great audience, was more like performing a recital than a competition.

It was so surreal when they announced that I won, because that’s when I realized, oh my goodness, I’ll get to sing on the Met stage! For my own sanity, I always have to say, well, it’s not going to happen, you’ll just do the best you can and be proud of whatever you can do. And then, when the moment comes and it does happen, was so exciting.

Chris: When I saw you win and shortly after, you seemed so calm, like, well, of course…

[Emma laughs loudly]. I was feeling a lot different than that, it was a frenzy, and you’re around people who didn’t win, and I feel I have to be respectful of that. I don’t want to be obnoxious in my joy, because I’ve won some and lost some too. But when I saw it all over social media and with everyone talking about it, I thought, this is real!

Chris: We listened to you sing in the Grand National Finals, and we both said, my God, she could actually win this thing. My wife Karen and I are both huge fans of young artists, and we were really rooting for you. Then after you won the National Finals, when you were one of only five winners out of 1500 initial competitors from around the world, you got a sizeable cash award of course, but that may be only a small part of what this prize will bring you.

Emma: Right. The prize started the day I arrived at the Met for the semifinals, meeting and working with the staff, seeing all the backstage areas, all so amazing and informative - and stepping out on that stage - the word I keep coming back to is surreal! You hear about how huge the opera house is, and it’s so massive. But then you get on the stage and it feels so intimate, even though it’s humongous!

Then I got to coach with the conductor, a stage director, and we got to work with the costume shop. All of us showed up for a final fitting, and one of the other girls showed up in the same dress I had brought! And a costume designer said, well, Melissa Wegner [the Laffont Competition’s director] has this one dress. She’ll bring it down and we’ll see if that works. The dress miraculously fit like a glove! And Melissa said, oh, this was a gift from Renee Fleming! So yes, I knew I had to wear it, the good juju… and they altered it for me, and I got this custom Renee Fleming gown, and I got to keep it! And then at the Finals, I got to sing with the Met Orchestra. When I first heard them playing my aria, I thought, this is like the perfection of a recording! That is just unreal. And it was a full house. I won the Pat Misslin Award, and she was a voice teacher at my undergrad school! Then [there's] the prize of the exposure you gain from that.

So much has come my way since then, starting with the Lindemann program, which is changing the trajectory of my whole life. You get the highest level of training, you get the respect that comes with being associated with the Met, and then other contracts line up after that. So with Santa Fe, they knew me from working with them last year, but winning at the Met helped them say, “Let’s upgrade this apprentice.”

Chris: It seems like you’re living a charmed life, where as fast as you can walk, the doors keep opening in front of you! As Musetta, you get to be the main comic foil in a really tragic opera, and then in the final act, when you get serious as Mimi is dying, even the color of your voice darkens.

Emma: It comes back to sink-or-swim, especially with Musetta. You just have to throw yourself into it. Your entrance is literally laughing as loud as you can, and you’re throwing plates, and if you don’t throw yourself into it 100%, it’s just awkward. So to have so much fun in the second act, and then this tender moment at the end, it tests you as a performer. When you’re having all that fun in Act two, you have to remember that in the core of this person, there is still that deeper character who is going to show up in Act four.

Chris: Your character is also so cruel to that old man, and her boyfriend…

Emma: It’s so much fun! As for the Met competition, at any level, it can be that new direction, that new excitement, that new propulsion in your career. I tried out for four years, and every year I gained something, from a new judge, an industry professional hearing me for the first time, getting feedback, or winning prizes at the different levels. There’s so much to gain. With so many districts [making it easy geographically to enter], it’s been a guidepost in my career. And Melissa Wegner and other judges are all keeping tabs on the young singers. You never know who is noticing you, and that is just invaluable.

The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition is designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. Many of today’s opera stars got their start in this Competition, including Renee Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Eric Owens, Lisette Oropesa, Michael Fabiano, and Ryan Speedo Green. Donations to our organization provide prize monies for award winners and support the costs incurred in hosting both the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region rounds of the Competition. It is important to note that even though the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region are officially sanctioned by The Metropolitan Opera and feed the national competition finals, we do not receive any funding from the national office. All funds needed for the Colorado-based competitions must be raised locally through the generous donations of individual opera lovers like you. Our annual membership drive is now in progress. The bulk of the funds used to support the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region Competition are raised through our membership drive. For existing members, we would ask you to please renew your current membership or, if possible, consider moving your membership to a higher level. For new visitors to this site, we would love to add you to our membership roster. Your financial support is what makes this amazing opportunity possible for these talented young opera singers.

Photos below: Karen Bruggenthies, Rocky Mountain Region Director; 2020 Region Winner Jonah Hoskins, who has now gone on to the Met's Lindemann Program and sang the starring role of Nemorino in Donizetti's Elixir of Love on April 19, 2023; presentation of the Marcia Ragonetti Award to Colin Miller; 2023 Region Finalists; Rocky Mountain Region Winner and Grand National Finals winner Christian Simmons, 2023.