This early performance of Anna Bolena’s final scene is just one of the most poised and magical pieces of bel canto singing I’ve ever heard. It must have been extraordinary to hear her at the outset of her career.

Pavarotti in his prime – He makes this so-familiar aria new and glowing.

Sigh! I think most of you realized I would pick this one. Got that “Donizetti and Bellini Heroines” from the Record Club of America when I was in my teens and playing it to death.

This to me is everything that makes Donizetti the great dramatist of the bel canto era.

The brave and beautiful Maartje Offers – best known from the potted Ring – lends her charismatic voice to Donizetti here.

Maybe this is an obvious choice, but this is the sort of performance that every opera queen dreams of attending: an unknown work being performed by a cast of largely unknown singers.

Assuming someone else will pick Leyla Gencer‘s legendary “Vil bastarda”, I’ll go with another clip featuring robust audience participation.

The Greatest Thing Ever (AKA Lisette Oropesa) in a stunning mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor with the excellent Artur Rucinski and Roberto Tagliavini in an extremely effective production by David Alden at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

For me, Donizetti’s operas are all about the mad scenes.

Late Callas singing Maria from “Figlia del Reggimento” a role she wisely never attempted on stage.

Who knew that rehearing a performance you believed had become nothing more than a cherished memory would have such healing properties during a time of bereavement?