Dr. Graciela Rivera (born April 17, 1921 in Ponce, Puerto Rico), is the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Rivera enjoyed singing as a child, she was considered very talented by her family and teachers alike. She received her primary and secondary education in Ponce, however her family moved to Cataño and later to Santurce, a section of San Juan, when she was a teenager, there she attended Santurce Central High School. While in high school, 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 only 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 Rossini at the New Orleans Opera. In December of 1951, she became the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera as Lucia in the production of Lucia di Lammermoor. She earned accolades for her performance from critics around the world. In 1953, Rivera was proclaimed "Citizen of the Year" by the City of New York. In 1954 Rivera was featured as a guest singer in Name That Tune. In 1956, she performed at the Theater of the University of Puerto Rico and one of her back-up singers was a young fellow Puerto Rican by the name of Justino Diaz, who would someday also become a renowned opera singer. That same year Rivera was presented with a special recognition by the Government of Puerto Rico. In 1959, Rivera returned to New York where she had a weekly radio show at WHOM. She traveled regularly between New York and Puerto Rico, in Puerto Rico she participated in the IV Pablo Casals Festival. In 1992, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Hostos Community College. She taught Puerto Rican music, Italian and Spanish. She also held conferences at Hunter College, Rutgers College and Lehman College. In 1993, Rivera earned her Doctorate Degree in Humanities from the Catholic University of Ponce and in 1996 she was bestowed with a Honoris Causa from Lehman College.
