RogerEvansOnline.com

As balance to the well-merited sensation that the rapid-fire high Cs at the Met are causing these days, check out this completely different excerpt (from a live Vienna broadcast) in which pathos invades the comedy to great effect (as it always does in the greatest comedies like Cosí fan tutte). Even the interpolated high D-flat is employed for an expressivity miraculously divorced from mere showing off.

And none of this should be allowed to overshadow the brilliant work of Natalie Dessay in this triumph. Here’s a sort of video synopsis of her more showy moments:

Let it be noticed that she also excells in the limpidly expressive passages, like the “Il Faut Partir,” which can be heard at this link. It’s almost as though Popeye’s beloved Olive Oyl had suddenly become a casta diva.