Graciela Rivera
| Graciela Rivera | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Graciela Rivera Zumchak |
| Born | 17 April 1921 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Died | 17 July 2011 Mays Landing, New Jersey |
| Genres | Opera |
| Occupation(s) | Opera Singer |
| Instruments | Voice |
| Notable instruments | |
| Voice | |
 You may listen to Graciela Rivera's interpretation of Manuel Fernández Juncos' version of the "La Borinqueña" on YouTube. |
Graciela Rivera (April 17, 1921 – July 17, 2011) was the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Rivera (birth name: Graciela Rivera Zumchak ) was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. As a child she enjoyed singing. Her father was a church pastor who would often play in his record player the opera music of Caruso. He owned a piano and when he played she would sing church hymns with her mother. she was considered very talented by her family and teachers alike.
Her family moved to Cataño and later to Santurce, a section of San Juan, where she finished her primary and secondary education. She was a student at Santurce Central High School when she auditioned and participated in school productions of "The Magic Flute", "Il trovatore", "Rigoletto", "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "Aida" (Ms. Rivera believes these were the first operas ever produced by a high school anywhere in the world). She delighted audiences in Puerto Rico with her soprano voice in concerts which she organized. She planned to use the money obtained from these concerts to pay for her studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.
Rivera moved to New York after she graduated from high school. She enrolled at Juilliard's and took voice classes, piano lessons, music theory, harmony and composition, graduating in 1943. Upon the outbreak of World War II, she sang for the American troops overseas as a member of the Red Cross.
In 1945, she was given the role of Adele in the musical "Rosalinda", a Broadway version of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. Rivera traveled to France and Germany with the production. That very same year she made her operatic debut as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" by Gioachino Rossini at the New Orleans Opera.
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