Placido Domingo
(born January 21, 1941, Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish-born singer, conductor, and
opera
administrator whose resonant, powerful
tenor
voice,
imposing
physical stature, good looks, and dramatic ability made him one of the most popular tenors of his time.
Domingo’s parents were noted performers in
zarzuela
, a form of Spanish
light opera
. The family moved to
Mexico
when he was eight. He studied
piano
and conducting at the National Conservatory of Music, but he changed the emphasis of his studies when his rich vocal ability was revealed. In 1961 he made his operatic debut in
Mexico City
and then went to
Dallas
to perform in its opera company. From 1962 to 1965 he was a resident performer at
Tel Aviv
’s Hebrew National Opera. He made his debut at the New York City Opera in 1965, at the
Metropolitan Opera House
in
New York City
in 1968 (subsequently becoming a regular performer there), and at
La Scala
in
Milan
in 1969. Over the course of an opera career that lasted more than five decades, Domingo sang an unprecedented number of different roles?reaching 150 in 2018?and he continued to learn new parts into his 70s. He began adding baritone roles to his
repertoire
in 2009, many of which received wide acclaim.
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A
prolific
and versatile performer, Domingo made numerous recordings and several film versions of operas, and he ventured into
popular music
as well, in recordings such as
The Domingo Songbook
,
Perhaps Love
, and
Pasion Espanola
. His
Amore Infinito
contains songs inspired by the poetry of
Pope John Paul II
. With
Luciano Pavarotti
and
Jose Carreras
, he performed around the world as one of the “Three Tenors,” exposing millions of people to the operatic repertoire. In 1993 he founded an international competition?Operalia?to help young opera singers launch their careers. Over the course of his own career, he received a dozen
Grammy Awards
in several categories as well as a
Kennedy Center
Honor (2000), the U.S.
Presidential Medal of Freedom
(2002), and an honorary British knighthood (2002) among many other honours. In 2009 he was awarded the first
Birgit Nilsson
Prize for outstanding achievement in classical
music
. (The prize was to be awarded every second or third year in the amount of $1 million.) In 2013 Domingo was named the recipient of the Japan Art Association’s
Praemium Imperiale
prize for music. In addition to appearing in films of his operatic performances, he occasionally lent his voice to animated characters on-screen, including a Chihuahua in
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
(2008) and a skeleton in
The Book of Life
(2014).
Domingo served as the artistic director (1996?2011) and general director (2003?11) of the
Washington (D.C.)
Opera
, and in 2000 he became the general director of the Los Angeles Opera. Domingo also conducted major
symphony
and opera
orchestras
in the
United States
and
Europe
. His motto, he claimed, was “If I rest, I rust.”
Amid accusations of sexual misconduct from multiple women in 2019, Domingo left the Metropolitan Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. Other cultural institutions, such as the
Philadelphia Orchestra
and the San Francisco Opera, responded to the allegations by canceling scheduled appearances, and Domingo ultimately withdrew from all of his remaining upcoming performances in the United States. He denied any wrongdoing.
Domingo’s autobiography,
My First Forty Years
, was published in 1983.
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