Mark, this is the first operatic video I'll post in this thread to introduce everyone to Natile Dessay, my favorite soprano. There's a lot I would love to share. But to love it. you may need to be an opera fan when you hear it. Meanwhile, in this scene from Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann," Miss Dessay becomes Olympia the doll. And when the man wears his magic glasses, he thinks she's a real girl.
I say "becomes" because Miss Dessay told Charlie Rose that she went deeply enough into character that she didn't recognize herself when they watched her in a video of the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor.
Sadly, she ended her opera career partly because she got tired of playing her roles.