New king of the high Cs

Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay both sang brilliantly in last night's La Fille du Régiment at the Met, the local debut of Laurent Pelly's richly amusing production. Flórez, after a slightly breathless start, securely zapped his nine high C's in the cabaletta of "Ah! mes amis," and then proceeded to zap them all again, audibly more at ease  — the first time a singer has delivered an encore at the Met since Pavarotti in 1994. I personally feel that Marco Armiliato could have waited a little longer before giving the downbeat for the encore, but it was fun to witness. Audio of the feat accompanies Bernard Holland's review in the New York Times. There's also a YouTube video of the aria from Vienna (same production). La Fille is on the Met's HD simulcast this Saturday. All remaining performances are sold out.