ABOUT LUISANA
Mezzo-soprano Luisana Rivas has been praised for her “heart-rending expression” (Music City Review) and is equally at home on the opera stage and in recital. She is also committed to championing Latinx composers, regularly performing their works across the U.S.
In the 2025–26 season, Luisana returns to Indianapolis Opera as Fall Resident Artist, where she will engage in community events and perform the role of Giovanna while covering Maddalena in Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. In the 2024–25 season, she portrayed Consuela and covered Anita in Indianapolis Opera’s production of West Side Story. That same season, she joined OPERA San Antonio as a summer Apprentice Artist.
An avid recitalist, Luisana was recently featured in the Texas New Music Festival alongside the Ponce Project Music Foundation, performing new works by living Latin American composers. She also performed her signature trio recital program Boleros and Arias at HOPera HTX, Humble Classical Concert Series, and the Leonel Castillo Community Center. Luisana continued her commitment to community opera through her work with Houston Grand Opera’s Opera to Go!, covering the role of The Pigeon in Don’t Let the Pigeon Sing Up Late! by Mo Willems and Carlos Simon.
During the 2023–24 season, she performed La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica and Mazeppa in Gypsy with Operativo Houston. She also debuted her Boleros and Arias program, featuring beloved Latin American songs and zarzuela arias. Additional highlights include her performances as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and La Zelatrice with Spotlight on Opera, as well as covering La Ciesca and performing the gender-bending roles of Maestro Spinelloccio and Ser Amantino di Nicolao in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Steamboat. Notably, she premiered J. E. Hernandez’s Soul Echoes, an immersive vocal drama produced by Concertia HTX and Project Amplify, presented as part of the Testimony Symposium at the University of Colorado Anschutz, a multidisciplinary gathering advocating for children and families in migration. She also covered the roles of Katie and Bernice Barbelle in Katie: The Strongest of the Strong by Faye Chiao with Houston Grand Opera.
In the 2022–23 season, Luisana participated in Austin Opera’s Concerts at the Consulate recital series and performed with Houston Grand Opera’s Opera to Go!, singing Monkey Queen/Lord Tiger in Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers by Kamala Sankaram. She previously toured as Rosina in The Barber of Seville with Opera to Go! throughout the greater Houston area.
In line with her mission to spotlight Latin American classical music, Luisana performed as the Latin Alto soloist in the Tennessee premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra in both 2022 and 2023. A commercial recording of the work—featuring Luisana and commemorating the 25th anniversary of its premiere—was recently released by Summit Records. For Latinx History Month, she toured as a guest artist with Apollo Chamber Players' Library Voyage. Through her continued work with the Ponce Project Foundation, she was featured in Women Composers of Latin America and premiered the solo recital Canciones de amor.
A frequent interpreter of trouser roles, Luisana recently debuted as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with Luke Housner’s Opera Workshop and has portrayed L’enfant in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Turnspit in Rusalka, and Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel. Other notable roles include Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance. Earlier in her career, she appeared with Opera Panama and Asociación Grupo Lírico de Panamá.
Luisana holds dual citizenship in Venezuela and France, and has pursued her studies in Panama and the United States. In addition to her work as a performer, she is passionate about uplifting communities through the arts and has served as a Teaching Artist with Houston Grand Opera and Alley Theatre.