Rossini: Le Comte Ory (complete opera recorded in 2011)

"The terrific cast was headed by the tenor Juan Diego Flórez as Ory, who spends much of the first act disguised as a hermit and much of the second impersonating a nun, all in an absurd attempt to ensnare a resistant young countess, Adèle. The soprano Diana Damrau brought her lustrous, agile coloratura soprano voice, and charisma galore, to Adèle. The superb mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sang Isolier, Ory's savvy page, who also yearns for Adèle's love and winds up winning it, or so it seems at the end of this farcical yet emotionally multilayered opera.

All three singers appeared during the 2006-7 season in Mr. Sher's production of Rossini's "Barbiere di Siviglia," his Met debut. That madcap show was a popular hit. Mr. Sher's work in "Le Comte Ory" is more original and riskier.

Maurizio Benini conducted a stylish and buoyant if sometimes breathless performance." (NY Times)

"Sher's production is wise, witty and completely faithful to the spirit of the piece...Damrau is peerless, giving a bravura comic performance made from winks and nudges, heavy theatrical sighing and a heaving bosom. Rossini's music might have been written for her diamond-bright coloratura and gravity-defying top notes. Joyce DiDonato is equally fine...And who could ask for a more winning Ory than Juan Diego Florez?...Delicious." BBC Music

"Not since Juan Oncina at Glyndebourne in the 1950s has there been a singer better able to cope with the phallocentric Count's stratospheric billings and cooings than Juan Diego Florez. Diana Damrau, a coloratura possessed of breeding as well as presence, makes a superb Countess Adele, and the irrepressible Joyce DiDonato gives a properly testosterone-fuelled performance...Benini directs the Met's Rolls Royce pit band with brisk efficiency." Gramophone