Graciela Rivera year she made her operatic debut as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" by Gioachino Rossini at the New Orleans Opera. In December 1951, she became the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the New York 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, and later that year, at an instance of Your Show of
Gioachino Rossini twelve other Italian composers on a "Requiem for Rossini", to be performed on the first anniversary of Rossini's death, conducted by Angelo Mariani. The music was written, but the performance was abandoned shortly before its scheduled premiere. Verdi re-used the "Libera me, Domine" he had written for the Rossini Requiem in his 1872 "Requiem for Manzoni". In 1989 the conductor Helmuth Rilling recorded the original "Requiem for Rossini" in its world premiere. In 1900, Giuseppe Cassioli created a monument to Rossini in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence. The Library of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels possesses an important collection