PLÁCIDO DOMINGO

Since Plácido Domingo was sixteen years old, he has never stopped working, and the more he studies, travels and performs, the more fulfilled he feels. Plácido Domingo was born with an unusually flexible voice, and he learned to use it properly. He has been blessed with very good health and stamina, which has allowed him to be on the go all the time. The greatest pleasure for him has always been, and still is, to make use of these gifts and advantages to give pleasure to others.

Born in Madrid to parents who were Zarzuela performers, Pl?cido Domingo moved to Mexico at the age of eight. He went to Mexico City's Conservatory of Music to study piano and conducting, but eventually was sidetracked into vocal training after his voice was discovered. He made his operatic debut at Monterrey as Alfredo in "La Traviata" and then spent two and a half years with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, singing 280 performances of 12 different roles. In 1966, he created the title role in the United States premiere of Ginastera's "Don Rodrigo" at the New York City Opera while appearing there in standard repertory as well. His Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1968, as Maurizio in "Adriana Lecouvreur. He has subsequently appeared there in more than 600 performances of 42 different roles and is now in his 39th consecutive season with the company (2007/08). He appears regularly at all the big opera houses of the world, including Milan's La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London's Covent Garden, Paris' Bastille Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Chicago's Lyric Opera, the Washington National Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Real in Madrid, and at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals.

Domingo's recordings, whether complete of operas , aria or duet albums or cross-over material, inevitably appear on the best seller charts and at one time, seven of his CD's appeared simultaneously on Billboard's top-selling charts of classical and cross-over recordings. Eight of his records have gone gold, meaning they have sold well over one million copies. Four of his most recent recording projects have been a double CD of every aria Verdi wrote for the tenor voice, a CD of excerpts from Wagner’s “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” which includes most of the music written for the Helden-tenor part of Siegfried and two complete Wagner operas, the first a complete “Tristan und Isolde” with soprano Nina Stemme and Anthony Pappano conducting the Covent Garden Orchestra, and the second a complete “Parsifal” with Waltraut Meier and Christian Thielemann conducting the orchestra of the Vienna Staatsoper. In a less Verdian or Wagnerian mood there have also been Puccini’s early opera “Edgar” and a CD devoted mostly to Neapolitan songs, under the title “Italia ti amo”.

His repertoire - 124 different roles, as mentioned earlier - includes almost all important parts in the Italian and French operas. Being constantly challenged by new roles, his ever expanding foray into the German repertoire consists of Wagner's "Parsifal", "Lohengrin" and Siegmund in "Die Walk?re", in addition to recorded performances of “Meistersinger", "Tannhäuser" and “The Flying Dutchman", of Richard Strauss, "Die Frau ohne Schatten", of Weber's "Oberon" and of Beethoven’s “Fidelio”. Within the past five years he added to his stage performances his first role in Russian, Gherman in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”, the Spanish Opera "Margarita la Tornera” by Roberto Chapí, Verdi's "La Battaglia di Legnano" and Alfano’s “Cyrano de Bergerac”. Unlike many of his colleagues, he is also interested in broadening his repertory with new compositions, such as Anton Garcia Abril's "Divinas Palabras," Deborah Drattell's "Nicholas and Alexandra”, with him as Rasputin, and Tan Dun’s “First Emperor”. Also new for him, in his extensive recorded repertoire are two Spanish operas, Breton's "La Dolores" and Albeniz’s “Merlin", for which he won a Latin Grammy.

Domingo's interest in helping young singers has led his yearly competition "Operalia” which so far has taken place in Paris (three times), Mexico City, Madrid (twice), Bordeaux, Tokyo, Hamburg, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles (twice), Washington, Valencia and a combination of Switzerland (St. Gallen), Austria (Bregenz), and Germany (Friedrichshafen, Isle of Mainau). It remains the biggest on the international scene with annual prizes amounting close to $200.000. It has launched many singers to international recognition, not only through its prizes but because of Domingo's continued interest in furthering their careers. The past five years also saw the inauguration of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program of the Washington National Opera and the Domingo-Thornton Young Artists Program of the Los Angeles Opera – other examples of his efforts to pave the way for opera’s future stars – a topic which formed the nucleus of a recent “60 Minutes” segment on him.