THE SONGBIRD: Ernestina Garfias was born in Mexico City in 1926 (possibly 1927 or 1928) and became a soprano stage, film, and TV star in Mexico in the 1960s. She studied voice in Mexico, but made her debut in Pisa, Italy as Gilda in 1953. She sang further engagements in Mexico and Buenos Aires, and then in 1960 moved to Barcelona and performed for seven years in Europe under the pseudonym "Tina Garfi." She made a few operetta-style melodrama films in the 1960s and appeared regularly on television, including her own live program titled "Concert" and as famous 19th century soprano Angela Peralta in "El nightingale Mexican." Garfias's repertoire included Adina, Amina, Dinorah, Gilda, Lucia, Manon, Olympia (performed in ballet shoes en pointe), Oscar, Queen of the Night, Titania, and Violetta, as well as florid roles in zarzuela works such as "Marina."

THE MUSIC: Manual Penella (1880 - 1939) was a Spanish composer who composed over 50 stage works (musical revues, opera, zarzuela, etc.). His "Las Musas Latinas" from 1912 has a unique concept and structure: three drunk men in a tavern are debating the best qualities of Italian, French, and Spanish wine when three muses appear to them, one representing each of the three countries, and proceed to perform various musical pieces representing their respective nations. In the first Italian segment, a bird seller sings this coloratura ditty about the song of the nightingale.

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