Sounds like you want an Old Style with optical weights for "big, display". Perhaps you like Requiem Fine for example. http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_features.php?featureID=42&productLi...

That roman looks a good deal like Garamond Premiere Pro, which I already have. (The italic is neat, though.) I'm looking for something with even greater stroke contrast... something close to Didot in stroke design, really.

Oh, and preferably (let's make this even more difficult!), I need something that works at text sizes. Billtroop's comment here (about a third of the way down) names the few Didot recreations that are based on text designs, not display designs. All of them have that stupid lowercase f.

How about this? Too bold? http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typeinnovations/kaczun-oldstyle/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/didot/

Tiemann?

MVB Verdigris Pro Big or Big Caslon?

Or Genath Display.

Thanks for the insight, people. Tiemann and Big Caslon are probably best. And—don't kill me—I actually got something close to what I was going for by using Garamond's Display weight at a smallish size (20 pt.) and increasing the spacing by a hair.