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."

Here Garfias sings an utterly unique vocal arrangement of Strauss's famous orchestra from "Die Fledermaus," for the 1965 film "Los Valses Venian de Viena y Los Ninos de Paris." Amazing sustained High F at the end!

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