O.C. Soprano Tops in Met Audition

Soprano Laurel Boyd, 30, of Laguna Niguel, won first place at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Western Regional Auditions on Friday at USC.

Boyd will now go to New York City in March to compete in the national finals. Winners of that competition receive prize money from the Met.

Mezzo-sopranos Katherine Lundeen, 31, of San Diego, and Elizabeth Anne Saunders, 27, of Los Angeles, won second and third place, respectively. They will not compete in the national finals.

Thirty-one singers competed in a preliminary round; from that field, 13 finalists were drawn.

Friday’s judges were veteran soprano Marni Nixon, Met tenor Nico Castel, Paul Kellogg, general director of Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., and Charles Reicker, an administrator at the Met.