The Marseilles' International Opera Competition Organizing Committee, created in 1982 by a group of voluntary members, has the aim to find and promote young operatic singers.

The Competition allows those young artists, came from all parts of the world, to perform in front of a Jury composed of well known personalities. They will try to be awarded and make their talent as a singer be acknowledge by Opera Houses' Managers, Artistic Agents and the audience which, each one in a different way, would make their career begin.

The history and the importance of the operatic life during the 19th and the 20th centuries required such an International Competition organised in the Marseilles' Opera House.

The high number of candidates and the capacity of the Jury to award operatic singers who make a career prove the success of this Competition. For instance, during the past years, the personalities of the Jury have choosen : the tenor Luca LOMBARDO (First Prize in 1987), baritones Franck FERRARI (First Prize in 1993), Marc BARRARD (Awarded in 1989), and Ludovic TEZIER, sopranos Valérie MILLOT and Cécile PERRIN, or the countertenor Christophe LAPORTE, if we only mention the french singers.

This Competition is organised every two years with the participation of the Centre National d'Artistes Lyriques and the Opera of Marseilles. The Orchestra of Marseilles kindly take part in the Final.