Newsroom

CORVALLIS - Oregon State University senior Erik Hundtoft was one of three winners in the Oregon District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions held recently at Portland State University.

Twenty singers participated in the competition. Hundtoft, a baritone, was awarded $1,000 and selected to compete at the Metropolitan Opera National Council regional auditions in Seattle on Jan. 30. Regional audition winners will advance to the national auditions at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Hundtoft, 24, attended Salem's Sprague High School. The senior music major studies voice with Richard Poppino, OSU's director of vocal studies. Hundtoft sang the role of Frosch in last spring's Opera Theater Corvallis production of "Die Fledermaus."

All singers for the Met auditions prepare five operatic arias. In the first round, each singer performs one aria for three judges, who decide which singers to call back for a second round.

The other two winners were soprano Amy Hansen and mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh. Hansen, of Portland, attended high school in Corvallis and sang the role of Adele in "Die Fledermaus." She and Hundtoft will be featured in this April's Opera Theater Corvallis production of Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi."