Graciela Araya

Who is Graciela Araya?

Graciela Araya is an Austrian mezzo-soprano of Chilean birth who has had a prolific international opera career since the early 1980s. Though her repertoire is extensive, her signature part is the title role in Carmen which she has performed over 400 times.

Born in Concepción, Chile, Araya was a voice student of Marta Duran in Santiago and Tomas Demolitsas in São Paulo. She made her stage debut in Santiago in 1981 as Maria in West Side Story. She made her first opera appearance the following year as Enrichetta di Francia in I puritani at the Municipal Theater of Santiago with Christina Deutekom as Elvira and Carlo Felice Cillario conducting. In 1983 she made appearances at the Theatro Municipal in São Paulo and the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1984 Araya won a scholarship to study and perform at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She made her European debut with the company that year as Gedankenstimme in the world premiere of Siegfried Matthus's Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke under the direction of Maximilian Schell. After finishing her internship in Berlin, she joined the Aachen Opera where she was committed for two years. She then sang for three years with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein before joining the roster of principal artists at the Vienna State Opera where she was committed for 12 seasons. She became an Austrian citizen while working in Vienna.