Annick Massis takes a comic singing lesson

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.
THE MUSIC: Donizetti is an Italian composer through and through, yet "La fille du régiment" (or the Daughter of the Regiment) falls in the national stylistic cracks as it was composed for the Opera-Comique and premiered there in 1840. Donizetti lived in Paris for two years and wrote "Fille" while there -- his first opera written to a French text. Despite a weak premiere and some negative reviews, the opera became a world-wide hit and a favorite of star coloratura sopranos from Jenny Lind to Lily Pons to Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills and beyond. Marie is an orphan who was adopted by a regiment of French soldiers, but is later revealed to have come from a wealthy noble family. In Act Two, as part of learning proper behavior and etiquette, she is giving a singing lesson by the Marquise, while Sergeant Suplice watches and distracts Marie with her regimental tunes. Marie sings "Le jour naissait dans le bocage," a spoof in the style of an old French air, by a faux composer named Fettuccine.

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Thank you so much for posting extracts with Annick all the time....