Plácido Domingo

At 83 years old, Plácido Domingo has this physical status:

José Plácido Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera performer, conductor, and arts administrator.

He has performed over a hundred complete operas and is well-known for his versatility, appearing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English, and Russian in the world's most prestigious opera houses.

Despite being primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for the bulk of his career, he soon migrated into more challenging roles, becoming the most coveted Otello of his generation.

He migrated from the tenor repertory to almost entirely baritone roles in the early 2010s, most notable Simon Boccanegra.

He has appeared in 151 roles. Domingo has also achieved a burgeoning success as a performer, particularly in Latin and popular music.

Several of his albums have gone silver, gold, platinum, and multi-platinum in addition to winning fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards.

Possibly Love (1981), his first pop album, has sparked his fame outside of the opera world.

The title song, which was performed as a duet with country and folk singer John Denver, has sold nearly four million copies and has contributed to numerous television appearances for the tenor.

He appeared in several filmically released and televised opera films, particularly under Franco Zeffirelli's direction.

He began performing with fellow tenors Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras as part of The Three Tenors in 1990.

Domingo's first Three Tenors album was the best-selling classical album of all time. Domingo began working in his parents' zarzuela company in Mexico and has since promoted this style of Spanish opera.

He also conducts operas and concerts, and he was the general director of the Los Angeles Opera in California from 2017 to 2019.

From 1996-2011, he served as both the artistic director and later general director of the Washington National Opera.

He has participated in a variety of humanitarian projects, as well as efforts to assist young opera singers, including the founding and running of Operalia, the international singing competition.

Early life

Plácido Domingo was born in Madrid, Spain's Retiro district, on January 21. After hearing a live performance of it, his mother announced that he and her husband knew he'd be a musician from the age of five because of his ability to hum hum complexities from a zarzuela. He and his family immigrated to Mexico in 1949, just days before his eighth birthday. Following a fruitful tour of Latin America, his parents, both actors, had decided to start a zarzuela business there. Domingo won a singing competition for boys shortly after arriving in Mexico, and his parents and his sister occasionally recruited him and his sister for children's roles in their zarzuela productions. Domingo played piano from a young age, first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, which he attended when he was 14 years old. He attended classes taught by Igor Markevitch and studied voice under Carlo Morelli, Renato Zanelli's brother. Both baritone and tenor roles were well-known actors. The entire course of Domingo's formal vocal instruction was unveiled; he never worked privately with a singing coach.

Domingo made his first professional appearance in 1957, accompanying his mother on the piano at a concert in Mérida, Yucatán. In Manuel Fernández Caballero's Gigantes y cabezudos debut in the same year as he made his big zarzuela debut, singing a baritone role. At the time, he was serving with his parents' zarzuela company, progressing to various baritone roles and acting as an accompanist for other singers. Luisa Fernanda's touring performance came to a halt the following year. Domingo replaced the ailing singer in his first appearance as a tenor, although he was concerned that the part's tessitura was too steep for him. He sang the tenor role of Rafael in the Spanish opera El gato montés later this year, demonstrating his ability to assert the tenor range even as he still considered himself a baritone. He appeared in the Baritone role (sometimes sung by basses) of Pascual in Emilio Arrieta's Marina on May 12, 1959. Marina is an opera conducted in the zarzuela musical style rather than a zarzuela formal style, as El gato montés, although both opera styles are usually performed by zarzuela companies. Among his earlier performances in the first Latin American production of the musical My Fair Lady, in which he was both the assistant conductor and assistant coach, in addition to his work with zarzuelas. Although he was a member of the organization, the company gave 185 performances of the musical in various cities in Mexico.

Domingo auditioned for the Mexico National Opera at the Palacio de Béllas Artes in 1959 as a baritone, but he was then asked to sight-read the tenor aria "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora. He was both a tenor comprimario and a tutor for other singers at the National Opera. Domingo played Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto on September 23 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a reticent American baritone, Cornell MacNeil, and bass-baritone Norman Treigle in a performance on his operatic debut. In Turandot, Normanno, and Pang, he appeared in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Altoum, and Pang, as well as other small parts. During his appearances at the National Opera, he appeared in Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow in which he alternated as Camille and Danilo (although the latter is often performed by baritones). Domingo made his debut in Béllas Artes at age 21, not in the title role for which he has now been internationally recognized for decades as one of Cassio's top interpreters, but in the small comprimario component.

The young Domingo played the piano for a ballet company as well as a for a program on Mexico's newly founded cultural television station in order to supplement his income. excerpts from zarzuelas, operettas, operas, and musical comedies were included in the program. When he appeared in a few small roles in Federico Garca Lorca, Luigi Pirandello, and Anton Chekhov's plays, he appeared in a few small parts. In the late 1950s, a rock-and-roll band led by César Costa, he also provided song arrangements and backup vocals for Los Camisas Negras. Domingo reflected on the benefits of his arduous and varied career as a youth, saying that I became used to intense fitness early in life and that I love it now as much as I did."

Family and personal life

Domingo was born in 1907 to Plácido Ferrer (8 March 1907 – 22 November 1989) and Josefa "Pepita" Embil Echániz (28 February 1918 – 28 August 1994), two Spanish zarzuela actors who nurtured his early musical talents. Domingo's father was half Aragonese and half Catalan, while his mother was a Basque from Gipuzkoa. His father, who played for opera and zarzuela orchestras, began as a violinist performing for opera and zarzuela orchestras. In zarzuelas, he took on baritone roles. Despite suffering from a cold, he continued to perform into the 1970s. Domingo's mother was a well-known soprano who made her stage debut at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. When performing in Federico Moreno Torroba's Sor Navarra, she met her husband at age 21. Later, Domingo remembered that experts encouraged his father to perform Wagnerian heldentenor roles, while the Liceu offered his mother a contract to perform opera. Moreno Torroba and Domingo's parents formed a zarzuela firm in 1946 and toured Latin America. His parents remained in Mexico permanently and established the Domingo Empress Company, Mexico's only zarzuela troupe. Maria José "Mari Pepa" Domingo de Fernandez (1942–2015), in addition to their son, had a daughter Maria José "Mari Pepa" Domingo de Fernandez (1942–2015).

Ana Mara Guerra Cué (1938-2006), a senior piano student, married Domingo on August 29, 1957 at the age of 16. José Plácido Guerra (called "Pepe" as a child and later "Joe"), a photographer, was born on June 16, 1958. However, the marriage did not last long, with the couple separating shortly thereafter. Domingo married Marta Ornelas (born 1935), a lyric soprano from Veracruz, Mexico, whom he encountered during his conservatory days, on August 1st. Marta had been named "Mexican Singer of the Year" in the same year. The couple appeared together at the Israel National Opera frequently after their marriage. However, after becoming pregnant with her first child, she halted her career to devote time to her family. They have two sons, Plácido Domingo Jr., who was born on October 21, 1965, and Alvaro Maurizio, born on October 11, 1968.

Domingo and his growing family immigrated to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the 1960s, after a period of time living in Israel. He later bought residences in Manhattan and Barcelona. He now has a house in his native Madrid, New York, where he lives. He spends time with his family at his holiday home in Acapulco, Mexico, during breaks in his work schedule.

He underwent colon cancer surgery in March 2010. After suffering a respiratory embolism, he was admitted to a hospital in Madrid in July 2013. He was released on July 14 and was "expected to make a complete recovery." He was admitted to a hospital for a cholecystectomy in October 2015 and missed the first five performances of Tosca he was supposed to see at the Metropolitan Opera in Tosca in October 2015.

Domingo reported positive for COVID-19, a disease-related pandemic in Mexico that killed Juan Domingo Beckmann, who also tested positive on March 22, 2020. He was admitted to a hospital in Acapulco to treat the disease's complications, but his symptoms remained stable, although his illness was undiagnosed.

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Career

Domingo made his operatic debut in 1961 as Alfredo in La traviata at the Teatro de la Ciudad in Montero. He made his debut in the Dallas Civic Opera with Arturo di Lammermoor opposite Joan Sutherland in the title role and Ettore Bastianini as Enrico later this year. He returned to Texas in 1962 to play Edgardo in the same opera as Lily Pons at the Fort Worth Opera. It will be the soprano's last operatic appearance. In Hartford, Connecticut, Nicholas Domingo performed Cassio's second tenor role in Cassio to Mario del Monaco's celebrated Otello. He signed a six-month contract with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv at the beginning of 1962, but later extended the contract and stayed in Tel Aviv for two and a half years, appearing in 280 performances in 12 different capacities.

Domingo appeared at the New York City Opera in June 1965 after finishing his service in Tel Aviv. He was hired to make his New York debut as Don José in Bizet's Carmen, but his debut came earlier than expected on June 17th, 1965, when he stepped in for an ailing tenor at the last minute in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. He appeared in the first performance of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera in February 1966, earning acclaim. "Mr. Domingo was as good as ever," the New York Times wrote. "A big, burly, large-voiced singer with a large, burly voiced singer who seems as one would imagine a hero from Gothic Spain." The appearance also marked the opening of the City Opera's new home in Lincoln Center.

His official debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York came on September 28, 1968, when Franco Corelli was substituted with no notice in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Tebaldi. Adriana Lecouvreur had already appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci two years before. Since then, he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera 21 times, more than any other artist, beating Enrico Caruso's previous record by four. He has been with the company from 1968 to 1969. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968; and at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in Turandot; and at Covent Garden in 1971. Domingo appeared in the 1975 Salzburg Festival for the first time, performing the title role in Don Carlo's all-star cast starring Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Capuccilli, Mirella Freni, and Christa Ludwig with Herbert von Karajan singing. Domingo has performed in Salzburg frequently for a number of operas as well as numerous concert appearances. He has appeared at virtually every major opera house and festival around the world.

In 1961, Domingo sang Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca, the first in Mexico City. With Nilsson, he sang Cavaradossi at the Met on February 15, 1969 (broadcast). He made his Covent Garden debut in 1971. He continued to perform for many years, including at the Met and in Vienna, eventually making it more effective than any other of his appearances. Domingo made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera in September 1975 in the title role of Verdi's Otello. It soon became his signature role and one of the operas he performed most often (over 200 times). He appeared in four officially released filmed interpretations of the opera three times in the studio and appeared in four officially released filmed versions of the opera. Laurence Olivier, an Oscar-winning Shakespearean actor, expressed surprise after seeing the tenor in the role: "Domingo performs Othello as well as I do, and he has the voice."

Domingo has also conducted operas and occasionally symphony orchestras as well. He conducted his first opera performance, La traviata starring Patricia Brooks at the New York City Opera on October 7, 1973. Domingo Conducts Milnes Conducts Domingo was released in the same year as a conductor, as well as baritone Sherrill Milnes. Domingo has risen to prominence as a conductor in major opera houses around the world. He starred in a live broadcast performance of Johan Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden in late 1983. He made a studio recording of the opera in which he both directed and sang the role of Alfred three years later.

Domingo's 1980s were a period of increasing success and fame. When he recorded the song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with American country/folk music singer John Denver in 1981, he gained a lot of attention outside of opera circles. He continued his success with many more albums of popular and Latin music. Domingo expressed the trepidation that his well-reced fan base in the hopes of attracting more people to try opera. These forays outside of the opera world resulted in numerous television appearances for the tenor, who was no longer popular among classical music enthusiasts. The Sound of Christmas, an Emmy Award-winning holiday television special shot in Salzburg, Austria, was produced by Julie Andrews in 1987. He appeared on many talk shows and news programs, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and 60 Minutes. During the 1980s, increasing numbers of his operatic performances were also on television.

Domingo appeared in his first cinematically released opera film, La Traviata, in 1982, after getting experience acting for the cameras in several televised operas. He had worked with the film's producer, former Academy Award nominee Franco Zeffirelli, before appearing in staged opera performances. And as filming in Rome continued, he travelled back and forth to perform live in Vienna, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid. Domingo shot Don José in Francesco Rosi's film adaptation of Carmen in 1984, capturing his native Spain. Two years after a failed opera, Otello, appeared in movie theaters around the world, Zeffirelli reunited with the tenor. Carmen was deemed the best of the three actors by Domingo, who disagreed with the director's "lower vision" of his character. He found La traviata to be "impressive" but expressed dissatisfaction with the music in Zeffirelli's Otello.

Even as diversifying his work, he continued to appear with a greater degree in more largely well-received operatic performances. On its front page, Newsweek announced Domingo "King Of The Opera" by 1982. The magazine's featured article, which chronicled and analyzed his career, praised the singer for his "heroic voice, superb musicianship, fine acting abilities, and jaw-splitting Latin good looks." Domingo appeared on Bellini's Norma's opening night the same year. It was the first time the tenor performed as part of Pollione on stage, one of his rare excursions into the bel canto repertory. Enée was supposed to open the Met's 1983-1984 centennial season as Enée in a well-publicized new production of Berlioz' Les Troyens, but a few months before, he was left wondering if he would perform the role's high tessitura without offending his voice. He asked to be released from his job, but eventually decided to appear in four of the six shows alongside his buddy James Levine, including one that was televised. He never reprised the role.

Domingo rescued the San Francisco Opera's season's opening night during rehearsals for Les Troyens. On the day of the performance, the tenor who was supposed to sing Otello, Carlo Cossutta, was cancelled. At 4 p.m., Domingo was ordered to be recalled by the corporation. He rushed from New York to San Francisco, rushed to the opera house, and performed at 10:30 in the evening. Among other journalists, a San Francisco Chronicle writer weighed in on the case. He observed the crowds gathering outside the stage door for the tenor's appearance, and remarked how many of the waiting audience members were "breathless" over the prospect of seeing Placido Domingo, a film that inspires a certain fervor among rock fans.

Domingo reprised his role as Wagner's Lohengrin, which he last performed in early 1968. He had originally dropped the role from his repertoire after finding his voice had been marginalized while attending the demanding opera. According to the New York Times, the now more mature artist "lacked the chrome-plated, penetrating quality that one associates with German tenors," but praised him for bringing "unique legato grace to a role that rarely sung so beautifully." In 1985 and 1990, he appeared in the Vienna State Opera. On January 28, 1990, a performance during the opera's last run was televised and later released on VHS and DVD. At the time, he had just recovered from the flu.

The country's biggest earthquake, the 19th earthquake in history, devastated a large portion of the Mexican capital. In the demise of the Nuevo León apartment block in the Tlatelo housing project, Domingo's aunt, uncle, nephew, and nephew's young boy were killed. Domingo himself labored to rescue survivors from multiple performances. He held benefit concerts for the victims during the next year and also released an album of one of the performances. He appeared in a special gala concert for Queen Elizabeth II and in the world premiere of Goya, an opera written specifically for him. Domingo had inspired Menotti to attend the opera about Spanish painter Francisco Goya, whose life captivated the singer.

Domingo has continued to perform new roles in his expanding repertoire, although older parts have been trimmed. The 1990s marked a rapid change in the types of jobs that the tenor performed. Don Carlo, Don José, Gustavo/Riccardo, Hoffmann, and Alvaro, among other things, performed his final Cavaradossi, but he began to expand the breadth of his performances beyond the traditional Italian and French repertory. He grew involved in Wagnerian operas, in particular. Although he had already sung Lohengrin and recorded a few operas by the composer, Wagner did not appear often onstage until he first appeared as Parsifal in 1991 and Siegmund in 1992. He performed these roles for almost two decades, including at the Bayreuth Festival.

Domingo appeared in an Mozart opera, Idomeneo, at the Met in 1994 for the first time in over three decades. He appeared in early Verdi opera, Stiffelio, Brazil's Guarany, and France grand operas, Hérodiade and Le prophète, both of which were rarely performed. He performed Eugene Onegin in translation while in Israel early in his career, and introduced The Queen of Spades, his first Russian-language opera, towards the end of the decade.

Andrea Chénier, Samson et Dalila, Otello, La fanciulla, Amphitheater, and Adriana Lecouvreur performed his last performances of some of his finest operas from early in his career in the 2000s: Andrea Chénier, Samson et Dalila, Otello, La fanciulla, Pagliacci, and Adriana Lecouvreur performed his last performances of some of his best operas from early in his last performance o Nevertheless, he has concentrated heavily on new roles in the twentieth century. He appeared in two concert performances of Verdi's rare La battaglia di Legnano and debuted in Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, an opera that his Three Tenors compatriot José Carreras had just recovered from obscurity in the 2000s. A few years later, Domingo himself helped to popularize Franco Alfano's infrequently performed Cyrano de Bergerac. He appeared in the eighteenth-century operas Iphigénie en Tauride and Tamerlano late in the decade, transforming musical styles once more.

In addition, Domingo performed various new roles in modern operas, including the title role in Tan Dun's 2006 opera The First Emperor, which was broadcast worldwide in movie theaters as part of the Met Live in HD collection. Pablo Neruda, a poet from Argentina, appeared in the world premiere of Daniel Catán's opera Il Postino in September 2010. Domingo sang Neptune in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere performance of Jeremy Sams' The Enchanted Island during the 2011–2012 season. A retrospective of Baroque opera with plot and characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, a PBS broadcast of the performance.

Domingo appeared in the Three Tenors concert in Rome on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final, giving him greater international recognition outside of opera. The event was originally intended to raise funds for the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation, and it was repeated a number of times, including in Los Angeles, 1998, and 2002 in Yokohama. Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert, the artist's debut together, went multi-platinum with records in excess of three million in the United States alone, ultimately outselling every previous classical album worldwide. Domingo and his colleagues received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for the album. Around 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watched their televised second World Cup appearance at Dodger Stadium, four years after their first successful concert. The Three Tenors in Concert 1994, an international performance, went platinum and multi-platinum in several countries, with some countries even ranking at number one on the UK Albums Chart. Domingo and Carreras were among the first-time stars of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin without Pavarotti and Carreras. He appeared in Rio de Janeiro with pianist Lang Lang and soprano Ana Mara Martez, a frequent singing partner of his son and a devoted singer. Domingo also performed "El Mundial," the official song for the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Domingo, a lifelong football fan, has remained a fan of Real Madrid C.F., his hometown team's home team. In 2002, he performed "Himno del Centenario del Real Madrid," the club's new commemorative anthem. José Mara Cano, with whom he had previously collaborated on the opera Luna, wrote it. During the 100th anniversary of the football team, Domingo performed the song live at the Bernabeu Stadium. Domingo performed during Real Madrid's season-ending celebrations on May 13, 2012, when the team claimed their 32nd Spanish league title. With "Y Nada Mas," he performed the latest iteration of Real Madrid's "Hala Madrid y nada más."

Domingo performed a duet with Song Zuya, singing i de Huyán (The Flame of Love) at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing on August 24th. He appeared in the Beijing Olympics for the second time; he also sang the Olympic Hymn at the closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

He appeared on "Novus," the closing track on Santana's album Shaman's album "British". During Benedict XVI's visit to Nationals Park and the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2008, Domingo sang before Benedict XVI. The Metropolitan Opera paid homage to Domingo's 40th and the company's 125th anniversary with a gala show and onstage dinner on March 15, 2009. At Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral service in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 29, 2009, he sang "Panis angelicus." Domingo's involvement in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón in March 2011 had been postponed in favor of the theatre's players, who were on strike.

Domingo first appeared in Menotti's Goya's world premiere performance in 1986. In 1988/89, Tosca's production was followed by performances. He took on the role of Artistic Director from 1996-97, giving the company's productions a new lease on life and his annual appearances in one role each season. The 1999/2000 season was an example of his ability to bring new singers to the stage. Anna Netrebko, then up-and-coming, became Gilda in Rigoletto, one of the many examples of his ability to bring new singers to the stage. Domingo was promoted to General Director in 2003, and his term was extended through the 2011-2011 season.

He had been Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Opera since 2000, in a tribute to Domingo's leadership of the Washington company. In 2003, he took over the company's General Director position. He revealed on September 20th, 2010 that he would keep his position as the General Director until 2013. A week later, he revealed that he would not extend his contract as the General Director of the Washington National Opera until the end of June 2011. The Washington Post's reaction to this included: The Washington Post's reflections on his achievements: The Washington Post's words on his achievement:

Domingo tried to deny accusations in East Coast newspapers that he was taking on too much when he appeared in the Los Angeles Times in which he reiterated his long-time motto, "I rest, I rust."

Domingo resigned as the Los Angeles Opera's general director in October 2019, owing to allegations of sexual abuse.

Domingo revealed in 2007 that two years later he would reprise one of Verdi's most coveted baritone roles, singing the title role in Simon Boccanegra. On October 24, his debut appearance in the role followed by 29 other performances at major opera houses around the globe, including the Met and the Royal Opera House in London.

Domingo has appeared in other baritone roles, including the role of Rigoletto in Verdi's Rigoletto, which premiered in August 2010 at Reignwood Theatre in Beijing. In March 2012, he appeared in Massenet's Thas for the first time. He undertook the role of Rigoletto in a live television broadcast in Europe shot in real locations in Mantua in 2011.

In Verdi's I Due Foscari, he appeared as Doge Francesco Foscari and Covent Garden in September 2012, and in late 2014, he appeared in Lavington as Doge Francesco Foscari. He appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in March 2013 for the first time as Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata. Giacomo in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco in Salzburg was he sang Giacomo in the following year. He debuted as Conte di Luna in Il trovatore in Berlin later this year. He performed di Luna again at the Salzburg Festival in the following season, with Anna Netrebko as Leonora, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Azucena and Francesco Meli as Manrico. He first appeared in Covent Garden's Nabucco in March-April 2013 and has since reprised the role in Saint Petersburg, Beijing, Verona, and Vienna. He made his debut in Berlin's Macbeth, as well as Don Carlo in Ernani in New York, and Gianni Schicchi in Los Angeles's title role.

Plácido Domingo performed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening gala concert in Moscow on June 13th, with Anna Netrebko, Juan Diego Florez and Aida Garifullina and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

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