Incidentally, in the CNN article I linked to above, it mentions the nine high Cs that Pavarotti sang in the aria in the La Fille du Regiment production at the Met. Pavarotti wasn't just showing off (well, not exactly). The nine high Cs are written into the aria, but most tenors couldn't do that many in rapid succession, so they fudged on them one way or another, often taking them in falsetto. Pavarotti was the first tenor on historical record to take all nine of them full voice! I have a recording of it. It's spectacular!

Don Firth