Dessay's crazy is fun. Crazy and Mozart always go well together. I also like this one from Diana Damrau.

Wow, Dorothea's sound is gorgeous. I love singers from either end of the range who can bring it like mezzos.

I don't think I have a favorite Holle Rache because I'm in a perpetual sulk over the fact that it's pretty much not possible to get the high notes out as angrily as I would like to hear them, and so the contrast between the pretty tinkly bell notes and the rest of the aria feels off to me (as here; electric until the staccati and then ... is it just me?) I love both Dessay and Damrau's acting, however. Dessay tends not to grab me so much emotionally as technically (I used to listen to her Lakmé on repeat... Mady Mesplé's, too). But she does the shattering-to-pieces-while-everyone-watches-in-paralyzed-horror thing very well.

Damrau I just love in general, not the least because she's not afraid to be unpretty on stage. Boss willing, I will be stealing off to the Met sometime in March to catch her with Flórez in L'Elisir d'Amore. I was so mad when I found out I had missed them both in Le comte Ory earlier this year. Can't wait to see them play together onstage.

For your listening pleasure, I submit:
Laura Claycomb, animatronically creepy in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. I went to The Capulets and the Montagues a couple of years back, expecting mostly to geek out over Vivica Genaux, but was very surprised by Claycomb.

And Delphine Galou (as a very furioso Orlando), a dramatic contralto with ridiculous breath support whom I cannot wait to see live someday.

Edda Moser's tessitura is just not right for the piece, I think. I love Dessay as well and am sad that her recent illnesses have kept her off the stage. Damrau just rocks my world, though. She's a force of nature.

Oh, and I envy you the circumstance that allows you to even have the option of thinking about stealing off to the Met to catch a performance.