Luciano Pavarotti singing "Ah! Mes amis" from Donizetti's
La fille du régiment
Daughter of the Regiment
Marie is a young woman who was adopted and raised by an entire army regiment, and Toni is a love-struck young man who joins the regiment just to be near her.
This opera is famous for the aria "Ah! mes amis!" which has been called the "Mount Everest" for tenors, as it features 9 high Cs and comes comparatively early in the opera, giving the singer less time to warm up his voice. Many lesser tenors do not quite hit the notes (hitting B natural instead), especially as they come in rapid-fire succession and require considerable vocal dexterity. Luciano Pavarotti's stardom is reckoned from a performance alongside Joan Sutherland at the Metropolitan Opera, when he "leapt over the 'Becher's Brook' of the string of high Cs with an aplomb that left everyone gasping."
The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow
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