Rachele Gilmore performs “The Doll Song” from The Tales of Hoffmann an aria with a high-degree of difficulty and seriously high notes.
Kathleen Kim’s understudy for the role of Olympia in the show was given only four hours to prepare for the performance and she nailed it – including the highest note to have ever been sung at the Metropolitan Opera.
Pop Blast declares this the “most difficult opera song ever” but I disagree. The tongue-twisting lyrics of “The Modern Major-General” in The Pirates of Penzance, or the emotion required to pull off “Il Dolce Suono” might be above “The Doll Song” on my list of difficult operas, but that is not to take away from Gilmore’s epic performance of a truly difficult aria.