The Three Tenors’ Plácido Domingo sings into record books as ‘the king of opera’
- Domingo, who is an ‘operaholic’, was one of The Three Tenors alongside Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras
- In May, he set a record by singing his 151st role, and a month earlier he also celebrated his 4,000th opera performance
When Peter Gelb took over New York’s legendary Metropolitan Opera in 2006, one of his jobs was to organise a farewell for Plácido Domingo.
But 13 years later the indefatigable Spanish tenor is still “the king of opera”, headlining France’s oldest musical festival at Orange last weekend.
“Since it was unimaginable that he could possibly be singing for much longer after an unmatched Met career that was soon to span four decades of starring roles,” Gelb says, “one of the responsibilities I was preparing for was Placido’s farewell.”
With many singers’ voices withering by the time they hit their forties, the unfailingly modest 78-year-old has somehow managed to keep performing at the top level.
“Instead of retiring, Placido apparently discovered his own fountain of youth, reinventing himself as a baritone,” Gelb says.