I am so glad that Google acquired YouTube because their search algorithms help me out when I do that part of my daily routine where I look up newly uploaded opera videos. Before I was able to say, like, "opera -phantom -soap -potts," I was getting a lot of bad webcam videos of people singing "Think of Me" and trying out Christine Daaé's E-flat, in alt, or whatever. Or like, clips from Passions (R.I.P.), where that crazy blackmailer/kidnapper is pacing around in his/her half-pinstriped-man, half-lingeriée-woman outfit with that scary-assed plastic mask. And then that Paul Potts tenor dude who won some talent contest on TV.

Anyway, it takes some patience, but there are some real gems hiding in that mess every day. Here are some of my recent faves:

Mark Wells — "Solitudine amata" from Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.

June Anderson — "Robert, Robert, toi que j'aime" from Meyerbeer's Robert, le diable. Paris, 1985.

Legipsy Alvares — "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Il barbiere di siviglia.

Alessandro Ceccarini (age 24) — "Già insolito ardore" from Rossini's L'italiana in algeri. Pesaro, March 2007.

Mario Petri — "De la crudel morte de Cristo" from Laudario di Cortona ( 13^th century)