01 ADRIANA

Though she's not, Maria Gulaghina is singing a role that is usually done at the end of a career. That said, here is "Poveri fiori" (did she not get the memo that said transpositions would start after the aria?).

02 AIDA

Richard Tucker in his famous performance as Rhadames with Arturo Toscanini, singing an ending of "Celeste Aida" sanctioned by the maestro.

03 BE MY WAY TO HEAVEN

Scale the heights with Donna Loochi as she sings a tricky ditty.

04 BORGIA

An excerpt from the infamous Lucrezia Borgia performance at La Scala starring Renee Fleming.

05 BUTTERFLY

THomas Hampson sings "Bring me back my Butterfly" of Cole Porter who quotes the Puccini opera (the love duet and that final chord).

06 CESARE

A voice of many registers, one might think Ewa Podles coached this aria from Giulio Cesare with Louis Armstrong.

07 CID

Montserrat Caballe gives great chest during a live performance of "Pleurz mes yeux" from Le Cid.

08 COUNTESS MARITZA

On July 12, 2007 Eva Marton sang an aria from Countess Maritza when she shouldn't have.

09 DIVA

Fanny Brice does her imitation of an operatic diva in this 1930 movie.

10 DON CARLO

Ah, the Pondman family. The father teaches/coaches/abuses his four children in the Netherlands and started their careers immediately on youtube. Here is the duet from Don Carlo with the two sons, Walther and Alain, accompanied by their sister, Lili. I didn't know the Dutch language had no recognizable vowels. And is the secret to the Pondman technique the ridiculous attempt to mimic Corelli? Brother Franciscus sings the role of the Friar and sisters Lonne and Liza provide the male chorus. Lili provides the spontaneous time signatured accompaniment.

11 DON CARLO

16-year-old soprano Lonne Pondman, accompanied by her sister, Lili Pondman, yanks her throat into submission with "Tu che la vanita" from Don Carlo. It literally can be painful to listen to, trying to figure out just what the heck she's doing to her larynx. The youtube text states (I'm not making this up, you know): "All in one voice, now it only needs to grow to maturity." It was filmed by National Dutch Television in August of 2008

12 ELISIR

Joseph Schmidt sings a very different ending in "Una furtiva lagrima" (a trill and high Bb).

13 GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG

The facts: Marjorie Lawrence, age 28, in her first six performances at the Met, most likely the first time singing them in their original language, taking place in less than a month:

12/18/35: Walküre - Brünnhilde (debut)
12/31/35: Lohengrin: Ortrud (broadcast)
12/21/35: Concert (broadcast)
12/28/35: Lohengrin: Ortrud
1/3/36: Siegfried - Brünnhilde
1/11/36: Götterdämmerung - Brünnhilde

Listen to the finale of the Immolation Scene from the Götterdämmernung broadcast of January 11, 1936. It's (rather dangerous) pedal-to-the-floor singing. It was also the first time she defied the director and rode Grane into the funeral pyre. Her reward was to get no further performances of the opera that season.

14 GYPSY

On January 10th, 2009, Patti LuPone stopped her Tony Award winning performance of Gypsy right in the middle of her biggest number: Rose's Turn. Someone in the audience was taking pictures, and this diva did not like it. She verbally and successfully kicked him out of the theater.

15 HAPPY BIRTHDAY

There was a restaurant birthday party for Licia Albanese on December 26, 2008. Listen (twice) as everyone sings Happy Birthday to her and she joins in on the very last note (high G).

16 HOFFMANN

Milagros Poblados essays the second verse of the Doll Song from Hoffmann with three staccato high Gs.

17 HOFFMANN

Wilfriede Luttgen, auf Deutsch, thrills and trills on high Bbs in alt from this 1960 Hoffmannvideo (second verse).

18 JUIVE

Excerpt from a live performance of La Juive with Chris Merritt.

19 LADIES' MAN

The obnoxious comedian-turned-director Jerry Lewis prompts Helen Traubel during a screen test for his movie "The Ladies' Man". Why she didn't deck him I don't know.

20 LAND OF SMILES

A tenor whose vocal stylings well a place in this series sings "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from The Land of Smiles.

21 LET THE EAGLES SOAR

The former (thank God) Attorney General John Ashcroft sings (since his religion forbids him from dancing or drinking) his heart rending rendition of "Let the Eagles Soar" at some rabid Republican dinner.

CD 2:

01 LUCIA

This has to be one of the top three selections from anything from the "Shall I Go On?" series. Fasten your seatbelts as Angie Animoat sings "Quando rapito in estasi" from Lucia. Her ornaments are, uh, spontaneous and her technique sometimes seems as if she learned it from a chimpanzee.

02 LUCIA

I'm always amazed when singers walk out in front of the public and not know if a certain note will work or not. And then when it doesn't, they don't adjust or get off of it. Do they think it will fix itself all by itself? Here is the final pages of the Mad Scene from Lucia with Anna Netrebko, her first Met performance of the role, January 26, 2009.

03 MACBETH

Elena Nikolaidi sings the Sleeprunning scene from Macbeth.

04 NORMA

Maria Guleghina attempts Norma's Act I cabaletta, not only dropping Bellini's written notes which are meant to be sung but adding interpolated fioraturi that she doesn't deserve to sing. Go figure.

05 OTELLO

The Otello of Otelli, Mario del Monaco, easily combines the final two phrases of the "Esultate" into one.

06 PAGLIACCI

Giovanni Martinelli very often added text to the postlude of Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci: "Infamia!".

07 PAGLIACCI

Spike Jones' take on Pagliacci.

08 REGINA DI GOLCONDA

Dramatic mezzo Bianca Berini sings an aria from Donizetti's Regina di Golconda, exhibiting her vast range in a scale beginning on a high E natural to low E natural(three octaves!).

09 RIGOLETTO

An unfortunate live 1940 St. Louis performance of the Rigoletto quartet with Bidu Sayao, Jan Kiepura, Carlo Morelli and Herta Glaz. L‡szl— Halasz was the conductor trying to keep things together.

10 RIGOLETTO

Juan Diego Florez sings the second verse of "La donna e mobile" from Rigoletto with accurate scalework, a touched interpolated high C# and a long held climactic high B.

11 ROSENKAVALIER

Susanne Mentzer, Deborah Voigt and Lisette Oropesa are heard here in an excerpt from the final trio from Der Rosenkavalier at the Met's 125th Anniversary Gala. The climactic high B natural from the Marschallin's throat wasn't exactly placed in the right spot. Or octave??

12 SPECTRE DE LA ROSE

Composer Rufus Wainwright shares his vocal styling of Berlioz' "Spectre de la Rose". Maybe he shouldn't quit his day job.

13 STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

Elva Ruby Connes Miller (aka Mrs. Miller) sings "Strangers in the Night".

14 STRIKE UP THE BAND/STARS & STRIPES

Maureen McGovern sings "Strike Up The Band" and then closes by singing the piccolo part(!) from Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever". She got the idea from a story about Estelle Liebling using the piccolo part as a warmup during her performing career.

15 TOTE STADT

On May 25, 1967, George London gave his final operatic performance in a Vienna production of Korngold's Die tote Stadt. Here is the beautiful "Pierrot's Tanzlied", transposed down a whole step.

16 TRAVIATA

In this manufactured 1940 recording of of Alfredo's Act I offstage serenade from La traviata, Beniamino Gigli takes an interpolated high C.

17 TRAVIATA

Piero Cappuccilli, in a performance of the role of Germont in La traviata, encored the Act II aria "Di provenza". This recording begins with the final page of the encore. The performance then continues and he takes an astounding high Bb at the finale. If you've got it, flaunt it.

18 TROVATORE

Dame Joan Sutherland's Met farewell took place on December 19, 1987 in the role of Leonora in Il trovatore. Here is the second verse of "Di tale amor". The entire performance was tailor-fitted for her. Here, Bonynge cuts one measure of the F/Eb trill turns and then later, adds a measure that wasn't written in the printed score but, no doubt, used in a performance from the distant past.

19 TROVATORE

From the same performance as track 18, Shirley Verrett interpolates a high C in the finale of Act III.

20 TROVATORE

Anna Moffo displays her amazing breath control in "D'amor sull ali rosee" from Il trovatore and takes an optional high Db.

21 VESPRI

Maralin Niska interpolates a stunning and fearless high E natural at the end of "Merce dilette amici from I Vespri Siciliani in this broadcast of April 12, 1975.

22 WHAT'S MY LINE?

From "What's My Line?", a delightful game show from the '50s thru the '70s where a blindfolded panel tries to guess who the celebrity guest is (first, the guest signs their name on a blackboard). Play along.

23 WHAT'S MY LINE?

From "What's My Line?", a delightful game show from the '50s thru the '70s where a blindfolded panel tries to guess who the celebrity guest is (first, the guest signs their name on a blackboard). Play along.

24 WHEN YOU'RE IN LOVE

Grace Moore and Cary Grant swing it in this scene from "When YouŐre in Love" (1937).