Tonight, we’re pretty excited to hear Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez in recital at Royal Albert Hall, as part of the Rosenblatt Recital series. The tenor is famous for his stratospheric singing, and although one of his signature arias, “Ah, mes amis” from Donizetti’s La fille du régiment isn’t listed on his programme, there’s always the promise of an encore…

Speaking of encores, Flórez broke the record (taboo?) at La Scala in 2007 by giving an encore performance of “Ah, mes amis” after his stellar performance, and when he sang it at the Met the following year, he took yet another encore. Exciting stuff!

So, in the meantime, we figure we’d whet our appetites for high C’s, with four of our favourite renditions of this notorious aria. *Note for the impatient: to get right to the high C’s, skip to the last minute and a half or so of each clip.

First up: Mr. Lawrence Brownlee, proving that high C’s can be endearing as well as impressive.

Next is Mexican tenor Javier Camarena, whom we’re excited to hear at Wigmore Hall next month.

Of course, there’s the famous performance of this aria by Pavarotti in 1972. Fierce high C’s, and some of the most hilarious French you’ve ever heard.

Finally, Mr. Flórez himself, singing the pants off of Donizetti’s score; you can almost see him rub his hands together and plant his feet for that final high C.