The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a cumbersome name for one of the most high-visibility voice competition in America. Every year, typically, 1,500 young singers perform in regional auditions around the country. The field is winnowed in stages until roughly 25 semifinalists are sent to compete in New York. The finalists are then chosen to perform in a special afternoon concert with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

That concert took place at the Met on Sunday, when nine finalists sang two arias each, with Stephen Lord conducting. The event has long drawn ardent audiences of opera buffs and insiders, including managers, company directors and talent scouts. To its credit the Met has always tried to play down the ranking aspect of the competition. Yes, five “winners” were declared on Sunday and awarded $15,000 each. But the winners were not ranked, and the remaining four went home with $5,000 each, having had the invaluable opportunity of performing before potentially helpful professionals.

Assessing young singers is never easy. Typically the voice of, say, a 22-year-old baritone is just beginning to emerge. So the judges, both the official ones and the passionate fans in the audience, had to weigh many factors. Do you assess the actual performance, or the seeming potential of a singer?

The youngest contestant, Simone Osborne, a 21-year-old soprano from British Columbia, sang arias from Smetana’s “Bartered Bride” and Stravinsky’s “Rake’s Progress” with a sweet and clear sound, sensitive phrasing and gleaming sustained high notes, though in the Stravinsky (“No Word From Tom”) she sacrificed clear diction for the sake of making lovely sounds. The oldest contestant — Dominic Armstrong, all of 28, a tenor from Missouri — seemed more settled in his singing and performed two demanding works: Macduff’s anguished aria from Verdi’s “Macbeth” and Lenski’s lyrically aching aria from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” His performances may have been a little cautious, but he seemed a real Verdi tenor in the making. I might have picked him for the final five. The judges did not, though Ms. Osborne made the cut.

The other winners appeared to be popular choices with the audience. René Barbera, 23, from Texas, a healthy, bright, lyric tenor, was especially strong in “Ah, mes amis,” from Donizetti’s “Fille du Régiment,” the snappy aria with nine high C’s. Jennifer Johnson, also 23, a mezzo-soprano from Missouri with a dusky-toned and vibrant voice, gave heartfelt, smart accounts of arias from Barber’s “Vanessa” and Mozart’s “Clemenza di Tito.” A baritone from Pennsylvania, Edward Parks, 24, showed a robust, earthy voice in arias by Bizet and Korngold. And Daveda Karanas, a 23-year-old mezzo-soprano from Louisiana, offered formidable performances of arias by Meyerbeer and Purcell (a gripping “When I Am Laid in Earth” from “Dido and Aeneas”).

The remaining finalists also did strong work and showed much potential: Carolina Castells, 25, a soprano from Florida; Christopher Magiera, 24, a baritone from Illinois; and Stephen A. Ray, 23, a baritone from Arkansas.

While the judges deliberated, the splendid mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung showed how it’s done in arias by Saint-Saëns and Wagner.

The affable host, the soprano Patricia Racette, tried to lessen the tension with a series of bad soprano jokes: “What’s the difference between a soprano and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist.”

But the most valuable information she shared with the contestants is that in 1988, when she entered the auditions, she made it only to the semifinals. Now she is singing leading roles in her 13th consecutive season at the Met.