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Banks, who sang Count Almaviva earlier this season at the Met, will also play Carlo in the Met premiere of Rossini's Armida next month. He made his debut as Flute in the 1996 Met premiere of A Midsummer Night's Dream and also appeared as the Fisherman in Le Rossignol and the Shepherd in Oedipus Rex.

He is best known for bel canto roles such as the two he sang last season at the Met: Elvino in La Sonnambula and Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore. He has also appeared here as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Tonio in La Fille du R_giment, Pedrillo in Die Entf‹hrung aus dem Serail, Lindoro in L'Italiana in Algeri, and Prince Ramiro in La Cenerentola.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia is conducted by Maurizio Benini and also features Diana Damrau as Rosina, Franco Vassallo as Figaro, Maurizio Muraro as Dr. Bartolo, and Samuel Ramey as Don Basilio. The production is by Bartlett Sher.

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