Julia Guiraudon

A French lyric soprano of the Opéra-Comique, the first Mimì in Paris and Massenet's first Cendrillon. She took first prizes at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896 and made her debut at the Opéra-Comique the next year, creating Tiphaine in Erlanger's Kermaria. She created Mimì in the first Paris La bohème in 1898 and the title role of Cendrillon in 1899, to a libretto by Henri Cain, whom she married in 1904 before leaving the stage. She returned in 1912 to sing in the premiere of Massenet's Roma at Monte Carlo. Her five recordings show a voice of great purity.