|
Placido
Domingo
Biography
Placido
Domingo
singer,
conductor
and
administrator.
By
now
be
has
sung
120
different
roles,
more
than
any
other
tenor
in
the
annals
of
music,
with
at
least
3
more
new
roles
planned
in
the
next
3
seasons.
His
repertoire
spans
the
gamut
from
Mozart
to
Verdi,
from
Berlioz
to
Puccini,
from
Wagner
to
Ginastera.
He
sings
in
every
important
Opera
House
in
the
world
and
has
made
well
over
100
recordings
of
which
97
are
full-length
operas,
often
recording
the
same
role
more
than
once,
and
for
which
he
has
earned
9
Grammy's
and
2
Grammy's
in
the
newly
established
Latin
Division.
He
has
made
more
than
50
videos
and
3
theatrically
released
films
which
are
Zeffirelli's
"Traviata"
and
"Otello"
and
Francesco
Rosi's
"Carmen.
His
telecast
of
"Tosca”,
in
the
settings
and
the
times
of
Tosca"
taped
life
from Rome
,
was
seen
by
more
than
1
billion
people
in
117
different
countries.
When
he
opened
the
1999/2000
Metropolitan
Opera
season
with
"Pagliacci"
he
sang
his
18th
opening
night
of
a
season
and,
as
the
New
York
Times
reported
on
its
front
page,
therewith
surpassed
the
old
Caruso
record
of
17
opening
nights.
As
a
music
conductor
he
has
led
opera
performances
in
all
the
important
theaters
from
the
Metropolitan
to
London
's
Covent
Garden
and
the
Vienna
State
Opera
and
has
conducted
purely
symphonic
concerts
with
such
renowned
orchestras
as
the
Berlin
Philharmonic,
London
Symphony
and
the
Chicago
Symphony,
as
well
as
making
further
recordings
as
a
conductor.
As
administrator
he
was
the
music
director
of
the
Seville
World’s
Expo
Fair
and
in
this
capacity
invited
the
world's
foremost
orchestras
and
opera
companies
including
the
Metropolitan
Opera,
to
Seville
,
Spain
.
Since
the
1996/97
season
he
has
been
Artistic
Director
of
the
Washington
National
Opera
and
as
of
the
2000/01
season
he
became,
additionally,
the
Artistic
Director
of
the
Los
Angeles
Opera,
having
been
one
of
its
founders,
and
for
a
number
of
years
also
its
Music
Adviser
and
Principal
Guest
Conductor.
As
of
early
2003
he
assumed
the
title
of
General
Director
of
the
Los
Angeles
Opera.
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
400
performances
of
41
different
roles
and
is
now
in
his
35th consecutive
season
with
the
company
(2003/2004).
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
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
Music
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,
not
long
ago,
7
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.
He
is
one
of
the
most
highly
decorated
and
honored
artists
before
the
public
today,
having
most
recently
nominated
a
Kennedy
Center
Honoree,
in
2002,
the
recipient
of
France's
Legion
of
Honor,
the
Honorary
Knighthood
of
the
British
Empire,
and
the
highest
decoration
in
the
United
States,
the
Medal
of
Freedom.
In
July
of
2003,
he
received
an
Honorary
Doctorate
from
England
’s
Oxford
.
The
accolades
most
often
associated
with
him
are
“The
King
of
Opera”,
which
was
originally
the
banner
headline
on
the
cover
of
Newsweek
magazine,
and
“a
true
renaissance
man
in
music”
which
was
first
printed
in
Italy
’s
Corriere
della
Sera
newspaper.
London
’s
newspaper
The
Guardian
summed
it
all
up
recently
(
July
4,
2003
)
by
simply
naming
Placido
Domingo:
"The
greatest
operatic
artist
of
modern
times". |
Business
&
