(gentle music) - Here's your chance to watch the future stars of opera before the world discovers them.

The Metropolitan Opera's Laffont Competition brings 31 talented young opera singers to Utah to compete for career defining opportunities.

Gunter Radinger is here to tell us more, and thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

- How excited are you to hear these voices, and to be a part of this competition?

- Well, it's always fascinating.

We've had many go through here that are now all over the world singing, and it's fabulous.

I love to watch it.

- What is it about opera that just really moves your heart, and drives you not only to be a part of it, but to help keep it going for years to come?

- It's the ultimate art form.

It includes everything.

Dance, singing, acting, music - - [Liz] Drama, storytelling.

- The whole thing.

Drama, storytelling, of course.

Some of the biggest stories are operas.

And this is the way to see the opera stars come about.

- And one thing that always hits me is people might not even understand the language, but they understand the impact and emotion behind it.

- Right.

That's the main thing.

But we've also got one nice thing that happened a bunch of years ago now is the supertitles, they translate the language for you, so it makes it even more accessible to people.

- What are some of the prizes that are at stake for these young opera singers?

- Locally, there's 41 districts, over the United States and North America.

And those 40, they compete.

They get a prize of, here, it's usually about $1,000.

And then they go to a regional, the Rocky Mountain Regional in Denver, where they get another prize.

I don't know how much that one is.

Then they compete as semi-finalists at the Met.

And the final prizes are awarded to sometimes between four and six people.

- [Liz] Yeah.

- And these six people each get $20,000 each.

- [Liz] Oh, that is incredible.

- Plus considerations.

- Well, what a prize for them, and what a prize for the people in the audience to get to experience this before they take off on the grand stage.

- Support good music.

- It really is.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

- Thank you.

- If you would like to check out Utah District Metropolitan Opera, the auditions are happening October 31st from 11:00 AM through 1:00 PM, and also 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM.

Just head to metopera.org for more information.

I'm Liz Adeola and thank you for watching "Contact."

(gentle music) Philanthropy, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the new host of “Contact,” a show that connec with local events and organizati that serve your community.

If you work for a nonprofit and to be on “Contact,” please visit pbsutah.org/contact