Plácido Domingo

Placido Domingo (2019)

Placido Domingo (2014)

José Plácido Domingo Embil , KBE (born January 21, 1941 in Madrid ) is a Spanish opera singer ( tenor and baritone ), conductor and artistic director . Along with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, he was one of the Three Tenors . In his career he has sold more than 21 million records, including over 2.5 million in his home country alone. His most successful release is the album The Three Tenors in Concert with over 7.2 million units sold. In 2019, around 20 women raised allegations of sexual harassment against Domingo, who admitted his wrongdoing in February 2020.

Life

Plácido Domingo was born as the son of the zarzuela singers Pepita Embil and Plácido Domingo Ferrer and spent his childhood in Mexico from 1949 . His first wife was Ana María Guerra Cué from 1957 to 1958, and he has been married to the soprano Marta Ornelas (* 1935) since 1962. He made his debut in a small role in 1959 (Borsa in Rigoletto in Mexico City ) and on May 19, 1961 as Alfredo in Traviata (in Monterrey , Mexico). From 1962 to 1965 he was engaged with his wife in Tel Aviv ( Israel ) before his real international career began with a successful appearance in 1966 at the New York City Opera in Alberto Ginastera's Don Rodrigo . Since then he has performed at all the major opera houses and opera festivals in the world:

With Francesco Meli and Anna Netrebko at Trovatore , Salzburg Festival 2014

• Gran Teatre del Liceu , Barcelona (debut January 1, 1966)
• Hamburg State Opera , (debut January 8, 1967)
• Vienna State Opera , (debut May 19, 1967)
• Deutsche Oper Berlin , (debut May 31, 1967)
• Metropolitan Opera , New York ( debut September 28, 1968)
• Lyric Opera of Chicago , (debut December 6, 1968)
• Verona Arena , (debut July 16, 1969)
• San Francisco Opera, (debut November 15, 1969)
• Milan Scala , (debut December 7, 1969)
• Covent Garden , London (debut December 8, 1971)
• Bavarian State Opera , Munich , (debut January 22, 1972)
• Teatro Colón , Buenos Aires (debut July 14, 1972)
• Paris Opera , (debut May 20, 1973)
• Salzburg Festival , (debut August 11, 1975)
• Los Angeles Opera, (debut at the opening of this company on October 7, 1986)
• Washington National Opera Washington, DC , (debut November 15, 1986)
• Mariinsky Theater , Saint Petersburg , (debut February 12, 1992)
• Richard Wagner Festival , Bayreuth , (debut August 17, 1992)
• State Opera Unter den Linden , Berlin (debut November 27, 1993)
• Teatro Real , Madrid , (debut October 18, 1997)
• Royal Opera House , Copenhagen , (debut April 7, 2006)

Domingo is considered one of the most versatile tenors and has sung 134 different roles so far . The focus of his broad repertoire is the Italian and French subject with operas by Giuseppe Verdi , Giacomo Puccini , Georges Bizet , Jules Massenet , Pietro Mascagni , Ruggero Leoncavallo , Umberto Giordano and others. One of his star roles was Otello (in Verdi's opera of the same name), recorded several times on record and filmed with him by Franco Zeffirelli . He has also made a name for himself as a Wagner singer, especially as Lohengrin , Siegmund (in Die Walküre ) and as Parsifal . He also sings in Russian (Gherman in Pique Dame ) and has premiered the operas Goya (by Gian Carlo Menotti ), El Poeta (by Federico Moreno Torroba ), Divinas palabras (by Antón García Abril ) and Nicholas and Alexandra (by Deborah Drattell ) participated. Up until very recently he has repeatedly acquired new roles: For example, in 2005 he rehearsed Franco Alfanos Cyrano de Bergerac at the Met and recorded the part of Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde on CD . In December 2006 and January 2007 he sang the lead role in the world premiere of Tan Dun's latest opera , The First Emperor, at the Met .

Domingo began as a baritone and sang only one baritone role during his tenor career, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia under Claudio Abbado . More recently he sang Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (2007), Germont ( La traviata ) and the title roles in Nabucco and Rigoletto . In 2013 he played the role of Count Luna in Verdi's Il trovatore at the Berlin State Opera, and in 2014 also at the Salzburg Festival . From the nineties (for the first time on the occasion of the World Cup in 1990 ) he had performed repeatedly and successfully in large arenas with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti ( The Three Tenors ). On the 2002 released album Shaman of Latin Rock - and jazz - guitarist Carlos Santana took over the vocals of the last song, Novus .

In 1996 Domingo became artistic director of the Washington National Opera and was its general director from 2003 to 2011; since 2003 he has been general director of the Los Angeles Opera . He is also active as a conductor , including at the Met , Covent Garden , the State Opera Unter den Linden , the Vienna State Opera , the Bavarian State Opera , the Theater an der Wien and the Bayreuth Festival ( Die Walküre , 2018). In 1993 he founded Operalia , a competition for young opera singers that has been held annually in various cities around the world since then (previously in Paris , Mexico City , Madrid , Bordeaux , Tokyo , Hamburg , San Juan , Los Angeles, Washington , Valencia and in the trinational Lake Constance region).

Domingo is known for its wide variety of charity events and promotions. For example, after the great earthquake in Mexico City , in which he also lost his own family members, he founded a children's village for the orphans of the earthquake. For a year he canceled almost all his duties at the major opera stages and only gave benefit concerts, the proceeds of which went to the orphans and other aid projects in Mexico. Again and again he supports aid projects all over the world, especially those that take on disadvantaged groups. In November 2006, together with the Vienna Philharmonic, he was appointed " Hearing Ambassador" by the Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Phonak . He supports the Hear the World Foundation to protect the hearing and to help the hearing impaired. Since June 2011, Domingo features in common with the world footballers Pele and Johan Cruyff and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former chairman of the FBI Louis Freeh to solve Commission of FIFA .

Domingo campaigned for the revival of little-known works in which he appeared himself, for example at the Theater an der Wien in a Zarzuela ( Luisa Fernanda by Federico Moreno Torroba ), ( Goya by Gian Carlo Menotti ) and Verdi's I due Foscari . In 2016 he also appeared here in the role of Macbeth by Verdi with the finale of the 1847 version. In May 2017, on the occasion of the anniversary of his first appearance at the Vienna State Opera 50 years ago, a gala was held in which Domingo appeared in Verdi's three baritone roles: Renato ( Un ballo in maschera ), Germont ( La traviata ) and Simon Boccanegra . On June 11, 2017, he made his debut there in the role of Marquis Posa in Don Carlo .

Sexual harassment

In August 2019, allegations of sexual harassment of several female colleagues became known, some of which go back up to 30 years. In response, Domingo resigned as head of the Los Angeles Opera. Several opera house workers reported that Domingo's behavior was an open secret and that "complicated strategies" had been developed to keep Domingo away from female singers.

At the end of February 2020, Domingo admitted personal misconduct and apologized to the women concerned. "I acknowledge full responsibility for my actions," a statement said. But he "never behaved aggressively towards anyone" or did anything to "hinder anyone's career," said Domingo. Domingo admitted that women did not dare to repel the attacks for fear of their careers. An investigation initiated by the Los Angeles Opera into the incidents at the house did not confirm the allegations, but criticized the inadequate communication and lack of awareness of sexual harassment at the opera.

Discography

Solo albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1983	My Life for a Song	-	-	-	UK31 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1983
1986	The Collection	-	-	-	UK30th gold (14 weeks)UK	-	First published: December 1986
1988	Greatest Love Songs	-	-	-	UK63 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 1988
1989	Goya: A Life in Song	-	-	-	UK36 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 1989
	The essential	-	-	-	UK20th gold (8 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 1989
	The most beautiful voice	DE6th gold (12 weeks)DE	-	-	-	-	First published: December 1989
1990	Be My Love: An Album of Love	-	-	-	UK14th gold (12 weeks)UK	US171 (6 weeks) US	First published: November 1990
1991	The Broadway I Love	-	-	-	UK45 silver (6 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 1991
1992	Arias And Spanish Songs	-	-	-	UK47 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 1992
1994	De Mi Alma Latina - From My Latin Soul	-	-	-	UK97 (1 week) UK	-	First published: October 1994
2000	Songs of Love - Love Songs	DE83 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK53 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 2000
2008	Amore Infinito	DE99 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	US117 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 2008
2012	Songs	-	AT20 (8 weeks) AT	-	UK78 (2 weeks) UK	US136 (2 weeks) US	First published: October 2012

More albums

• 1994: A Night At The Opera
• 1997: Pucciniarior
• 2002: Sacred Songs
• 2004: Bravo! - The best of
• 2006: Italia, ti amo
• 2008: Pasión española
• 2011: The Story
• 2013: The Best Of
• 2014: Encanto del mar
• 2015: My Christmas

Collaborations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	Perhaps love	-	-	-	UK17th gold (21 weeks)UK	US18th platinum (27 weeks)US	First published: November 1981 with John Denver
1985	Andrew Lloyd Webber: Requiem	-	-	-	UK4th platinum (18 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 1985 with Sarah Brightman and Lorin Maazel
1992	From The Barcelona Games	-	AT14 (8 weeks) AT	-	UK41 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1992 with Montserrat Caballé and José Carreras
1996	A Celebration Of Christmas	DE37 (4 weeks) DE	AT10 (2 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First published: October 1996 with Natalie Cole and José Carreras
	Classic Christmas Album Christmas gala of world stars	DE48 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: December 1996 with Kiri Te Kanawa and Luciano Pavarotti
1997	Sanctus: The Concert For The Soul	DE39 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: March 1997 with Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti
2006	The Waldbühne concert	DE68 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: November 2006 with Netrebko and Rolando Villazón
2007	Gitano	DE50 (7 weeks) DE	AT38 (7 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First published: February 2007 with Rolando Villazón
2013	Verdi	-	AT27 (2 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First published: August 2013 with Pablo Heras-Casado
2016	Notte magica - A Tribute To The Three Tenors	-	AT33 (2 weeks) AT	CH33 (6 weeks) CH	-	US186 (1 week) US	First publication: September 2016 with Il Volo

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Christmas in Vienna

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1993	Christmas in Vienna	DE13 gold (9 weeks)DE	AT2 platinum (5 weeks)AT	CH7th gold (2 weeks)CH	UK71 (2 weeks) UK	US154 (3 weeks) US	First published: October 1993 with Diana Ross and José Carreras
1994	Christmas In Vienna II	DE41 (5 weeks) DE	AT7 (2 weeks) AT	-	UK60 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 1994 with Dionne Warwick
1995	Christmas In Vienna III	DE50 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: November 1995 with Charles Aznavour and Sissel Kyrkjebø
1996	Christmas In Vienna - Best Of	DE60 (3 weeks) DE	AT37 (4 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First published: November 1996 with Helmut Lotti , Patricia Kaas , Vanessa Williams , Charlotte Church , Sarah Brightman, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti
1997	Christmas In Vienna IV	DE61 (3 weeks) DE	AT16 (4 weeks) AT	-	-	US192 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 1997 with Michael Bolton and Ying Huang
1998	Christmas In Vienna V.	DE33 (4 weeks) DE	AT26 (4 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First publication: November 1998 with Riccardo Cocciante , Sarah Brightman and Helmut Lotti
1999	Christmas In Vienna VI	DE49 (4 weeks) DE	-	CH97 (1 week) CH	-	-	First publication: October 1999 with Alejandro Fernández and Patricia Kaas
2001	Christmas In Vienna VII	DE79 (2 weeks) DE	AT48 (5 weeks) AT	CH78 (1 week) CH	-	US102 (6 weeks) US	First published: October 2001 with Tony Bennett , Vanessa Williams and Charlotte Church

The 3 tenors

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1990	In concert	DE3 platinum (100 weeks)DE	AT2 gold (23 weeks)AT	CH10 gold (16 weeks)CH	UK1 × 5 Quintuple platinum (82 weeks)UK	US53 × 3 Triple platinum (100 weeks)US	First publication: August 1990 with José Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and Zubin Mehta
1994	In Concert 1994	DE2 × 3 Triple gold (48 weeks)DE	AT1 × 2 Double platinum (22 weeks)AT	CH3 platinum (22 weeks)CH	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (28 weeks)UK	US4th platinum (33 weeks)US	First publication: August 1994 with José Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and Zubin Mehta
1998	Paris 1998	DE3 (18 weeks) DE	AT8th gold (16 weeks)AT	CH10 gold (10 weeks)CH	UK14th silver (9 weeks)UK	US83 gold (10 weeks)US	First published: August 1998 with José Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and James Levine
2000	Christmas / Christmas	DE9 gold (5 weeks)DE	AT3 (6 weeks) AT	CH11 (4 weeks) CH	UK57 silver (2 weeks)UK	US54 gold (8 weeks)US	First published: November 2000 with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti
2002	Best of	-	AT37 (6 weeks) AT	-	UK86 (1 week) UK	-	First published: May 2002 with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti

Songs

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	Perhaps Love Perhaps Love	-	-	-	UK46 (9 weeks) UK	US59 (7 weeks) US	First published: November 1981 with John Denver
1989	Till I Loved You Goya: A Life in Song	-	-	-	UK24 (11 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1989 with Jennifer Rush
1990	Nessun dorma Opera Extravaganza	-	-	-	UK59 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1990 with Luis Cobos
1994	Fire in your heart inside	DE26 (9 weeks) DE	-	CH20 (8 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: March 1994 with Sissel Kyrkjebø
	Libiamo / La donna è mobile In Concert	-	-	-	UK21 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1994 with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti
1998	You'll Never Walk Alone Paris 1998	DE46 (4 weeks) DE	-	CH28 (2 weeks) CH	UK35 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1998 with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti

Awards for music sales

→ Main article : Plácido Domingo / Awards for Music Sales

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Argentina (CAPIF)	-	gold1	4 × platinum4th	218,000	capif.org.ar ( Memento from May 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) AR2 ( Memento from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
Australia (ARIA)	-	2 × gold2	6 × platinum6th	490,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	gold1	2 × platinum2	125,000	ultratop.be
Brazil (PMB)	-	-	platinum1	250,000	pro-musicabr.org.br
Denmark (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	20,000	Individual evidence
Germany (BVMI)	-	6 × gold6th	3 × platinum3	2,075,000	musikindustrie.de
Europe (IFPI)	-	-	3 × platinum3	(3,000,000)	ifpi.org ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Finland (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	28,684	ifpi.fi
France (SNEP)	-	gold1	3 × platinum3	720,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Canada (MC)	-	2 × gold2	11 × platinum11	840,000	musiccanada.com
Mexico (AMPROFON)	-	3 × gold3	-	250,000	amprofon.com.mx
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	-	2 × platinum2	30,000	nztop40.co.nz
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	3 × gold3	13 × platinum13	1,440,000	nvpi.nl
Norway (IFPI)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	100,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Austria (IFPI)	-	3 × gold3	5 × platinum5	305,000	ifpi.at
Poland (ZPAV)	-	gold1	4 × platinum4th	390,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
Sweden (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	100,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	3 × gold3	platinum1	125,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	5 × gold5	23 × platinum23	2,550,000	promusicae.es ES1 ES2 ES3 ES4
United States (RIAA)	-	3 × gold3	16 × platinum16	8,050,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	4 × silver4th	8 × gold8th	11 × platinum11	3,415,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	4 × silver4th	46 × gold46	110 × platinum110

honors and awards

Domingo received several high honors, such as B. Prince of Asturias Prize (Spain, 1991), Kennedy Center Honoree (USA, 2000), Honorary Knighthood (Great Britain, 2002), Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur (France, 2002), Presidential Medal of Freedom ( USA, 2002), World Award in the World Achievement Award category (2003), Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st Class , etc., and honorary doctorates from the Royal Northern College of Music (England, 1982), the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts ( USA, 1982), Oklahoma City University (USA, 1984), Complutense University Madrid (Spain, 1989), University of New York (USA, 1990), Georgetown University (USA, 1992), Washington College of Chestertown (USA, 2000), Universidad Anáhuac (Mexico, 2001), Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy , Warsaw (Poland, 2003) and Oxford University (England, 2003), Classical Brit Award (England, May 2006, for its 2006 published studio recording Tristan and Isolde and for his life's work) as well as the Great Si Silver Medal of Honor of the Republic of Austria (2007) and the Gold Medal of Honor for Services to the State of Vienna . He is a Bavarian (2005) and Austrian chamber singer . He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2000 . He is also an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera and holder of their Ring of Honor (2012) and the Ring of Honor of the City of Vienna (1994). A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame bears his name. In 2008 he received a "Bambi" and in 2009 he was the first to be awarded the Birgit Nilsson Prize , worth one million dollars . Also in 2009 he received the ECHO Klassik Prize for his life's work at the Semperoper in Dresden . In November 2010 he received the Latin Grammy Award "Person of the Year" for his "professional and philanthropic services". In 2013 he was honored with the Japanese Praemium Imperiale . In 2015 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Salamanca . In 2020 he was awarded the Austrian Music Theater Prize for his life's work.

Plácido Domingo as the keynote speaker at the National Endowment for the Arts 2008

Trivia

A doll from Sesame Street named Placido Flamingo (also called “Blaffido Flamingo” in the English original) was named after the opera singer and is thus a cocky opera star. Domingo himself appeared as a guest in a duet with the doll.

In the Hollywood film Manolo and the Book of Life from 2014, Domingo speaks the great-grandfather Manolo.

literature

• Cornelius Schnauber : Placido Domingo. ECON, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3612262246 .

Web links

Commons : Plácido Domingo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• International Singing Competition Operalia
• Literature by and about Plácido Domingo in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Plácido Domingo  in the German Digital Library
• Opera is expensive, singers are cheap - Placido Domingo on opera houses that are too small, casting singers like Paul Potts and the necessary humility for a great career (article by Nahuel Lopez in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung - March 15, 2009)
• Opera: The Classical Summit (article by Sven Michaelsen in stern issue 14/2006)
• Introfilm with an interview with Plácido Domingo on the subject of hearing

Individual evidence

1. ^ Plácido Domingo, My first forty years (Knopf, 1983), p. 7; Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, 1980), p. 533; Daniel Snowman, Plácido Domingo's Tales from the Opera (Amadeus, 1994), p. 9; Helena Matheopoulos, Plácido Domingo - My Operatic Roles (Little Brown, 2000) p. 10 ff. With a birth certificate and baptismal certificate printed. In older sources there are partly different information, such as the year 1934 in Karl Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens, Das Großes Sängerlexikon (2nd, newly edited and expanded edition, Francke 1982; corrected to 1941 in later editions); Attila Csampai and Dietmar Holland: Giacomo Puccini: Tosca. Texts, materials, comments (rororo opera book, 1980), p. 263; Harold Rosenthal and John Warack, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (2nd edition, Oxford University Press 1979, corrected to 1941 in later editions); on the other hand, see Stanley Sadie and Alison Latham, The Norton / Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music (Macmillan, 1994), p. 213, 1937.
2. ↑ WAZ : star tenor Plácido Domingo now sings baritone roles ; accessed on 21 Sep. 2013
3. ↑ Blatter vows to restore FIFA's credibility at edition.cnn.com
4. ↑ Harassment allegations: Domingo leaves LA Opera at tagesschau.de
5. ↑ apr / hpi / AP: Plácido Domingo: More women accuse opera star of harassment. In: Spiegel Online . September 5, 2019, accessed May 13, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Plácido Domingo admits sexual misconduct towards women , on zeit.de, from February 25, 2020.
7. ↑ xvc / afp: Sexual harassment: Plácido Domingo apologizes. In: Spiegel Online . February 25, 2020, accessed May 13, 2020 . 
8. ^ LA Opera Independent Investigation: Summary of Findings and Recommendations , LA Opera, March 10, 2020
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
10. ^ Book of Members. Retrieved July 23, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Plácido Domingo reivindica la presencia de la música en todos los niveles de la Educación al recibir el doctorado honoris causa por la Universidad de Salamanca. ( Memento of January 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Message of January 13, 2015 on saladeprensa.usal.es (Spanish), accessed on January 14, 2015.
12. ↑ Austrian Music Theater Prize: Domingo receives prize for his life's work. In: The press . July 26, 2020, accessed July 26, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Placido Flamingo. In: SesameStreet.org . Retrieved December 12, 2013.
14. ↑ Classic Sesame Street - Look Through the Window (Placido Flamingo and Plácido Domingo).