Plácido Domingo As it is the practice in Spain, Plácido Domingo's full name reads José Plácido Domingo Embil but this article uses the usual name as who he is known internationally. (born January 21, 1941) His birthdate has sometimes incorrectly been given as 1934. This arose from a comment by Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in 1971 who on hearing him in La forza del destino said that "no one could sing Alvaro like that at 30 years old." This was shown by the author Daniel Snowman to be an erroneous assumption on obtaining Domingo's birth certificate from the Madrid authorities. (see Plácido Domingo - My Operatic Roles, Helena Matheopoulos) is a world-famous Spanish operatic tenor, well-known for his versatile, strong voice that is possessed of a ringing and clear tone throughout its range.

Biography and career

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Plácido Domingo was born in Madrid, Spain, and moved to Mexico at age 8 with his family, who ran a zarzuela company. In Mexico City he studied music at the National Conservatory. He provided backup vocals for Los Black Jeans in 1958, a rock-and-roll band lead by César Costa. He learned piano and conducting, but made his stage debut in 1959 (May 12) at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara as Pascual in Marina. It was followed by Borsa in Rigoletto, Padre Confessor (Le dialogue des Carmelites) and others. In 1962 he joined the Israeli National Opera in Tel Aviv, where he spent two and a half years, singing 280 performances.

In 1966, he sang the title role in the US premiere of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera, with much acclaim. He first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on September 28, 1968, in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, singing with Renata Tebaldi. (Since then, he has opened the season there 21 times, surpassing the previous record of Enrico Caruso by four.) He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968, at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in 1969, and at Covent Garden in 1971, and has now sung at practically every other important opera house and festival worldwide.

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