Annick Massis - Thomas: MIGNON - Je suis Titania, Compiègne 1996, High E-flat

THE SONGBIRD: Annick Massis is one of the sopranos I most admire (hence, deserving of a YT thumbnail graphic template and playlist all her own). Massis was born to a musical household in 1958 in Paris. She got something of a late start on her singing studies and career, making her operatic debut in her early 30s in Toulouse. Massis gradually built an impressive performance and recording career in Europe and the U.S. singing florid baroque works, florid French lyric roles, and florid bel canto heroines. This 1996 performance is one of her earliest on YouTube.

THE MUSIC: Ambroise Thomas composed the opera-comique "Mignon" to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel. It was a big success upon its Paris premiere in 1866 and had racked up 1,500 performances at that theater within just over 50 years. The work features one of opera's most flamboyant coloratura arias as the glamorous actress Philine dazzles a crowd of adoring fans after her performance (off stage) as Titania, the queen of the fairies, in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." She is Titania, she announces -- "Je suis Titania!" It's a true vocal showpiece, an exuberant polonaise, with extravagant coloratura trickery packed into nearly every measure. The highest note in the score, a single High E-flat, comes in the written final cadenza.