Soprano Francesca Herrera returns to Arizona Opera as a Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio Artist for the 2026/2027 season. This fall, she will cover the role of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg as well as sing The Princess in Xavier Montsalvatge’s El Gato con Botas. In spring 2027, she will sing Edith and cover Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. She also will sing Annina and serve as a study cover for Violetta in La Traviata.

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During the 2025/2026 season, she made her Arizona Opera house debut as Luisa in Héctor Armienta’s Zorro. In spring 2026, she returned as Clorinda in La Cenerentola. For summer 2026, Herrera joins Central City Opera as an Apprentice Artist covering with a performance Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro while also serving as a study cover for Susanna.

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Herrera was a 2025 Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where she covered Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Frasquita in Carmen. She won the 2025 Tommy Trotter Memorial Scholarship in the Opera Guild for Atlanta Scholarship Competition and placed first in the Great Lakes Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Student Auditions.

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Highlights of the 2024/2025 season included an Encouragement Award in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (North Carolina District) and performing Flora in The Turn of the Screw with University of Michigan’s Department of Voice & Opera. Herrera also performed Cathy/Shamana 1 and covered Lucy in the first orchestral workshop of The House on Mango Street, a new opera by Derek Bermel and Sandra Cisneros.

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As an Emerging Artist with Seagle Festival for two summers, Herrera performed roles including Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Johanna in Sweeney Todd. As an accomplished dancer, she choreographed Seagle Festival’s productions of Brigadoon and With Blood, with Ink by Peter M. Krask. Herrera graduated cum laude from Duke University and pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Amanda Majeski.​

 

Her superpower as an artist is her storytelling. Coupled with her warm, sparkling voice, her captivating stage presence takes the audience along with her on every journey. She is an advocate for opera and classical music's longevity and rediscovery. She hopes to continue to bring the music of underrepresented composers to the forefront and connect with her Latin heritage through any opportunity possible. ​​