San Diego Opera Launches Forbes Prize With $8,000 in Cash and Stage Roles

San Diego Opera has launched the Forbes Prize, a new annual vocal competition that will hand two emerging singers a combined $8,000 and, more unusually, a mainstage role in a future company season.

The first-place winner receives $5,000; the second-place winner receives $3,000. The live final round is scheduled for January 9, 2027, before a jury of three judges.

The prize honors James Forbes, a longtime patron, staff member and San Diego Opera board director who stayed involved with the company until shortly before his death in December 2020. The company established the award, it says, in gratitude for his years of service.

Who can apply, and how?

The competition is open to early-career opera singers aged 18 and older who are United States citizens. The process runs on a tight clock:

• Online audition videos must be submitted by October 31, 2026.
• Each applicant submits two contrasting arias in separate languages.
• San Diego Opera will evaluate the videos in November 2026.
• Finalists will be notified and invited to San Diego by November 30, 2026.
• Three judges will decide the winners at the live final on January 9, 2027.

The company has not specified how many finalists will advance, nor what the mainstage roles on offer might be — which roles, in which productions, in which season. For singers weighing an application, those details will matter more than the cash.

What does the prize change for young singers?

Cash awards of this size are common on the competition circuit; the role is not. General Director and CEO David Bennett made that point himself. "One of the most important responsibilities of an opera company is to nurture the future of the art form," Bennett said in a statement. "The opportunity to perform a mainstage role makes this competition especially unique. It allows us to both recognize gifted singers, and invest directly in their future by giving them professional experience on the San Diego Opera stage."

That is the competition's real currency. A paid mainstage debut with a major American company is a credential that $5,000 cannot buy, and few contests attach one. The caveat: the company has not yet said whether both winners, or only the first-place singer, will be offered the role.

Bennett framed the prize as a continuation of Forbes's own priorities. "James Forbes cared deeply about San Diego Opera and its future and the Forbes Prize honors that legacy by identifying exceptional emerging talent and providing meaningful support as artists build their careers," he said.

A test of the format

The Forbes Prize enters a crowded field of American vocal competitions, most of which offer money and exposure but no guaranteed stage work. If San Diego Opera delivers the promised roles — and names them — it will have built something genuinely distinct. The first answers arrive with the November 2026 video evaluations.