Placido Domingo was born on
21 January 1941 in Madrid, Spain, to the soprano Pepita Embil
and tenor Placido Domingo. The musical setting surrounding
his family was an early inspiration for his piano lessons
and subsequent interets for conducting, and finally his urge
to sing. The family had moved to Mexico in 1950 where the
mother had a successful Spanish operetta company, and where
Placido Domingo received his musical vocation. He made his
operatic debut as a baritone in Mexico City 1957 in Caballero's
zarzuela 'Gigantes y cabezudos.' His first major tenor role
took place in Monterrey in 1960, where he was Alfredo in
La Traviata.
Performances followed in Dallas in 1961 as Arturo in 'Lucia
di Lammermoor', before he undertook a large engagement with
the Israeli National Opera in between the years of 1962-65.
He then appeared at the New York City Opera in the US premiere
of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo in 1966 and first sang at the
Metropolitan Opera in 1968 as Maurizio in Cilia's Adriana
Lecouvreur. His first appearance at La Scala was in Verdi's
Ernani in 1969 and two years later he appeared at Covent
Garden as Cavaradossi in Tosca.
Domingo's reputation as an outstanding lyrical tenor with
an unrivalled stage command soon spread to all the major
opera houses throughout the world and his name was in great
demand. Throughout the 70's he also proved to be an extremely
versatile tenor. Apart from his great successes in the lyrical-spinto
repertory (Cavaradossi, Alfredo, Turiddu, Don Jose, Samson,
Des Grieux and Calaf), he also undertook the heavier tenor
repertory with Andrea Chenier and Radames, and was to become
the foremost Otello interpreter of his day to his followers.
By the late 80's he had also added a vast range of Heldentenor
roles, such as Wagner's Parsifal, Lohengrin and Siegmund.
Menotti's "Goya" was created for Domingo.
Domingo also extended his career to the orchestra pit and
has conducted some of the worlds leading orchestras to great
acclaim. In 1994 he was appointed Artistic Director of the
Washington Opera.
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