La vita è inferno . . . O tu che in seno agli angeli

I totally adore this aria, and I really love this performance. Somehow, being in black-and-white gives it greater poignancy. But I do wish the audience would desist from clapping until the clarinet solo is over; it's a vital and intrinsic part of how Verdi wrote it, and it just betrays bucketloads of musical ignorance. It's a shame Forza isn't performed more often; I prefer it to many of the repertory mainstays. Plácido has said it's his favourite Verdi opera (what! he never heard Otello?) and his youngest son is called Alvaro (I think Otello would have been a bad choice...)

There's over 500 hundred clips of Plácido on YouTube, and the number seems to grow every day...