Ill dolce suono...

This is the beginning of one opera song that I like very much. I knew its existence in the film "The Fifth Element".
Ill dolce suono ("The Sweet Sound") is a fragment of the "scena ed aria" -commonly known as the "mad scene" sung by the lady soprano, Lucia- and it is taken from Act III from the play Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. I will not explain the theatre scene but the scene in the film which it is performed. So, please, I invit you to see that part of the film because, in my view, the song (and the act) is wonderful.

The (beautiful) voice which sounds in the film is from the singer Inva Mula-Tchako.
The character who performs the song is called "The Diva Plavalaguna" and if you see is pretty stange. The actress was Maïween, a french actress who in the moment which the film was created, she was dating the director.
Initially, Maïween didn't want to perform that character. Luc Besson (the director) always wanted Maïween to do the scene but faced with his girlfriend's refusal Luc found another girl to do it. However, three days before beginning the shooting the girl disappeared. That's why finally Maïween offered to perform "the Diva" character.
She had to listen to the song at least thirty times a day for three months. Every second of the song had to be perfectly combined with her performance. The most difficult job was the costum. The make-up artists took a long time to do makeup and dress her. Maïween says in a interview that the costum was very heavy, specially the strange hat. She wore stilts so she was so tall that there was a special chair in which she sit while the process of the makeup.
The concert recording of the Diva was very special. Anyone of the other actors and actress of the film didn't met the Diva's actress before or didn't know the existence of that character. The director sit them and said them some like: "Today, you are going to see and hear a very special singer. Just enjoy it and let the emotions come out". No one knew what was going to happen. The "Diva" was hidden behind the curtains. Then, she appears and a sound of a flute is heard and the Diva begins to sing...
But, the surprising is that, at the middle of the song, it is remixed with one more modern style of music -tecno.
That scene is combined with other scene in which the other main character "Leeloo" is figthing with the enemies. So, Maïween explains in the interview that when she watched the finally scene chosen for the film she thought that people weren't going to able to see what her dedication she made to do the scene. So, she felt some disappointed. But one day -she continues to explain- it occured to her searching in the net about the Diva's character and surprisingly she found a lot of things about it and she was very glad. I think that scene is the most famous of the film since, at least, the Diva's performance in the famous web "Youtube" have been successful.