Solange Michel

Solange Michel (27 November 1912 – 15 December 2010) was a French classical mezzo-soprano who sang in concerts, recitals, and operas from the 1930s to the 1970s.

She was particularly associated with the French opera repertory and was one of the most popular interpreters of the title heroine in Georges Bizet's Carmen in post World War II France.

She began her career as a concert singer, giving her first performance on French Radio in 1936, and made her stage debut in 1942, as Charlotte in Werther.

Other notable roles included; Charlotte, Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, Geneviève in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Marguerite in Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, and Orfeo in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

She made a number of recordings, the most famous being Carmen, opposite Raoul Jobin, and conducted by André Cluytens.