The Metropolitan Opera has named soprano Lisette Oropesa as the winner of the 14th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award. The $50,000 award is given to extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers. Given in honor of the legendary American soprano Beverly Sills, the award was established in 2006.
Oropesa will sing two leading roles in the Met’s 2019–20 season: the title role in Massenet’s Manon and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. She began her career at the Met as a winner of the 2005 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and then spent three seasons in the company’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She made her Met debut in 2006 as a Woman of Crete in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and has gone on to make her mark in more than 100 performances.
Lisette Oropesa was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cuban parents, and played the flute for 12 years before she began her studies in vocal performance at Louisiana State University. After winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2005, she entered the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
