Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo (born January 21, 1941) is a famous opera singer. He is renown for his versatility as a tenor; his repertoire includes roles in French (Faust,Werther), German (Lohengrin,Tristan) and Italian (Il Trovatore, Don Carlo)).

He was born in Madrid, Spain, but moved to Mexico with his family, where he studied music at the National Conservatory in Mexico City. He learned piano and conducting[?], but made his stage debut as a tenor in 1959 as Alfredo in La Traviata. In 1962 he joined the Israeli National Opera, and first performed at the [[|Metropolitan Opera|Met]]in New York in 1965. He made his debut at La Scala in 1969 and at Covent Garden in 1971.

Domingo became a household name as part of Three Tenors, which was a series concerts he gave together with Luchiano Pavarotti[?] and Carreras[?] . The concerts took place in large stadiums and were broadcast on television. Ostensibly they introduced opera to wider public, music for the millions in a manner of speaking. Purists however scorned Three Tenors, regarding more as music for millions in view of the exorbitant honoraria &mdash in excess of US$ 1 million per person &mdash that the three singers and conductor Zubin Mehta[?] received. Performing opera arias in sports stadiums like Wembley with heavy amplification , critics argue, contributes little to the appreciation of opera as the gesamtkunst as Richard Wagner conceived it.

Off the opera stage, Domingo has guest starred on Sesame Street, and was parodied with a character called Placido Flamingo on the same show.

Links

http://www.placidodomingo.com