Jane Marie Andrée Rhodes sang Renata in the first recorded performance of an opera that could be  considered one of the composer’s what?
Jane Rhodes Jane Marie Andrée Rhodes (March 13, 1929 – May 7, 2011) was a French opera singer whose voice encompassed both the soprano and high mezzo-soprano ranges. Her most celebrated role was Carmen, which she sang in the opera's first ever staging at the Palais Garnier. She also created the roles of Isadora in Marcel Landowski's "Le Fou" and Maguelone in Georges Delerue's "Le Chevalier de Neige" and sang Renata in the first recorded performance of Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel". Admired for both her voice and her glamorous stage presence, she was nicknamed the "Bardot of the Opéra". She was married to conductor Roberto Benzi.
Zanetto Zanetto is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It received its first performance on 2 March 1896 at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Only 40 minutes long and with cast of two singers, "Zanetto" was originally described by its composer as a "scena lirica" (lyric scene) rather than an opera. It is set in the countryside near Florence during the Renaissance and tells the story of an encounter between a beautiful courtesan, Silvia, and a young wandering minstrel, Zanetto. The libretto was adapted from an Italian translation by Emilio Praga of François Coppée's play "Le passant" (The passer-by) in which the young Sarah Bernhardt had won fame in the "en travesti" role of Zanetto.