Placido Domingo

Opera in Concert Version, Macbeth by G. Verdi

Biography of Plácido Domingo

The tenor and conductor Plácido Domingo was born on January 21, 1941, in Madrid, Spain. His parents, both zarzuela singers, the Spanish equivalent of comic opera, took him to live in Mexico. At 14, he enrolled at the conservatory in Mexico City, where he studied piano, singing, composition, and orchestral conducting. Married at 16 to a piano student and a father just a year later, he had to work hard and accepted all kinds of jobs in the music and theater world. He also accompanied his mother on the piano and sang his first roles in his parents' company. However, the couple quickly separated.

In 1959, at the age of 18, he stood out as a baritone during an audition at the Mexico City Opera, but he was advised to present himself for tenor roles. He was then engaged to play Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto. Plácido Domingo got his first major role two years later (in 1961) in Monterrey (Mexico) as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. In 1962, he married soprano Marta Ornelas, who remains his most loyal advisor. Engaged by the Tel Aviv Opera, they gave numerous performances there and stayed for two and a half years. He notably took on the roles of Don José in Bizet's Carmen, Nadir in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, and the title role in Gounod's Faust.

In 1965, the couple moved to the United States, marking a turning point in Domingo's career as he made his debut at the New York City Opera in 1965 with the role of Don José in Carmen. In 1966, he made his debut at the Liceu as Anselmo in Moncayo's La mulata de Córdoba and at the Metropolitan in New York as Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, then Lord Percy in Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Luigi in Puccini's Il Tabarro. In 1967, he returned to Europe to focus on the Verdi repertoire: he took the title role of Don Carlos at the Vienna State Opera and the roles of Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Berlin State Opera and Radamès in Aida in Hamburg, where he also performed Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca and Lohengrin by Wagner in 1968. That year, in addition to making his debut at the Chicago Opera as Des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut, he was brought back to the Met to replace Franco Corelli as Maurizio in Cilea's Adrianna Lecouvreur. Since then, he has opened 21 seasons at the Met, breaking Enrico Caruso's record.

Plácido Domingo made his debut in 1969 at La Scala in Milan, where he took the title role of Verdi's Ernani, at the San Francisco Opera where he played Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, and at the Verona Arena where he was Calaf in Puccini's Turandot. This composer then opened the doors to Covent Garden, where he sang Tosca again in 1971, and the Bavarian State Opera, where he sang La Bohème again in 1972. Then it was Verdi's turn to allow him to make his first steps on new prestigious stages. Thus, he made his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with the role of Don Alvaro in La forza del destino in 1972, at the Paris Opera with the role of Manrico in Il Trovatore in 1973, and then at the Salzburg Festival with the title role of Don Carlos in 1975. He also added another Verdi title role to his already extensive repertoire that year, that of Otello in Hamburg. This role became his signature, and he performed it more than 200 times around the world during his career.

More than just an opera interpreter, he gradually became a popular star by participating in television shows and recording albums with pop singers like John Denver. Despite this, he continued to perform on stage, such as at the Met, where he portrayed his first Pollione in Bellini's Norma in 1981 and Énée in Berlioz's Les Troyens in 1983. Alongside his singing career, Plácido Domingo quietly began a conducting career in the 1980s. He notably conducted a televised production of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden in 1983. Around the same time, he ventured into film by playing Alfredo in Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata, Don José in Francesco Rosi's Carmen in 1984, and later reunited with Zeffirelli in 1986 for Otello. In 1986, he made his debut at the Washington Opera with the world premiere of Goya, an opera composed specifically for him by Menotti, who was fascinated by the painter. He then remained in Washington, where he was appointed Artistic Director at the age of 45.

In 1990, he founded the Three Tenors group with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. The success was global. At that time, he decided to delve more into Wagner's work. He took the title role of Parsifal at the Met in 1991 and sang it again the following year for his debut at Bayreuth. He also portrayed Siegmund in Die Walküre in Vienna in 1992. Interested in discovering new talents, he established the Operalia prize in 1993, a singing competition aimed at promoting the most promising young singers. Many winners have become famous, such as Nina Stemme, Rolando Villazón, Joyce DiDonato, Erwin Schrott, and Sonya Yoncheva. In 1994, for the first time in three decades, Plácido Domingo sang a work by Mozart, Idomeneo, in which he took the title role at the Met. He then played Adorno in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Met and Covent Garden in 1995 and 1997, Jean in Meyerbeer's Le Prophète in Vienna in 1998, and Hermann in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Met in 1999.

In 2000, he took over the Los Angeles Opera. He then continued to take on roles, notably at the Met, where he portrayed Cyrano de Bergerac by Alfano in 2005 and Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride in 2007, as well as at the Teatro Real, where he excelled in the role of Bajazet in Handel's Tamerlano in 2008. Over time, he regained the baritone range with which he started, allowing him to continue expanding his repertoire since 2010 with the title role of Rigoletto at the Reignwood Theater in China, that of Simon Boccanegra in Berlin, and the role of Athanaël in Massenet's Thaïs in Valencia in 2012. He was Francesco Foscari in I due Foscari in Los Angeles in 2012. The following year, in 2013, he took on the roles of Giorgio Germont in La Traviata at the Met, Nabucco at Covent Garden, Giacomo in Joan of Arc at Salzburg, and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore at the Berlin State Opera. There, he later portrayed Macbeth in 2015, the year he returned to the Met to play Don Carlo in Ernani. He also took the title role of Gianni Schicchi in Madrid. The following year, the tenor conducted Don Giovanni by Mozart at the Met as well as Tosca and Roméo et Juliette by Gounod in Vienna. In this city, he later took on the role of Posa in Don Carlos.

Program and cast

Programme

Opéra en version concert, Macbeth de G.Verdi

Interprètes

Lady - Olga Maslova

Banquo - Carlo Lepore

Mc Duff - Matteo Roma

Conductor - Jordi Bernàcer