Accused of sexual harassment and victim of several health problems in 2020, including contamination with the coronavirus, the 79-year-old Spanish tenor has not finished singing.
At least that is what he says in the
Diapason
magazine
which devotes the front page of its January issue to him and a long portrait fueled by confidences.
"
Even if Plácido Domingo behaved badly - which we will be careful not to dispute or attest - would that allow us to wipe out six decades of a colossal career with a stroke of the pen?
“, Pretends to wonder the director of the magazine in his editorial.
Refusing "
to participate in a form of media-digital lynching
", wondering about the "
oh so delicate question of consent
"And on"
where does the heavy dredge stop?
", The magazine"
avoids the subjects which annoy, under penalty of seeing the maestrissimo turning the heels
"when he meets the singer.
Read also: Plácido Domingo, sick, gives up his commitments in Italy
Plácido Domingo, it is true, has already tried to explain himself.
Confusedly.
First to deny categorically, then by publicly asking for forgiveness, then again to defend oneself from having
"never abused anyone"
.
“
What remains to be added?
», Says Vincent Agresh in
Diapason.
The journalist, who also devotes several pages to an investigation of the #MeeToo phenomenon in opera, focuses on the artist, on his career and his wish to see it continue to the end.
“
I would like to sing
Nabucco
in Vienna this month and celebrate my birthday gala, of course,
” says Plácido Domingo while several stages, and in particular the big American theaters, remain closed to him.
Read also: Plácido Domingo, sick, gives up his commitments in Italy
On the eve of his 80th birthday on January 21, the tenor thus begins to dream of new lyrical adventures.
“
Try a few more new roles if I'm healthy, for example the sheriff of
La Fanciulla del West,” explains Plácido Domingo.
And sing one last time at the Palais Garnier.
"
If I could sing a last Athanaël in
Thaïs
to Garnier
,
I wouldn't have much to ask for!"
», He adds.
Domingo sang in eighteen productions of the Paris Opera, from
Trouvère
in 1973 to Germont in
La Traviata
in 2018, a few months before scandal caught up with him.
For him, "
nothing equals the magic of Garnier
".
He mentions Rolf Libermann, "
one of the most important theater directors in my life
".
And for good reason: in the 1970s, Plácido Domingo was invited to Paris every season, sometimes several times a season, for
Tosca, Otello, La Bohème, La Force du destin
or
Les Vêpres.
The tenor did not shy away from the Bastille hall either, after its inauguration in 1989. While Carlos Ott's vessel still scares some singers, he defends it.
“
It's not at all a bad room !, he
explains to wring the neck of the firmly anchored legend.
I will just never understand why we only had seven hundred more seats than the first, when it would have taken at least a thousand to have a real popular theater with cheap tickets.
"
To read also: Sexual harassment: "I am not the Harvey Weinstein of the opera", defends the tenor Placido Domingo
A return of Plácido Domingo to the Paris Opera - and to Garnier according to his wishes - today seems improbable to many.
But not to the tenor who ensures that "
contacts are in progress
" with the new director of the Paris Opera, Alexandre Neef.
The person has not yet confirmed.
And if the tenor is no longer expected on most lyrical stages, he has kept a few dates in several European theaters this season, in Vienna where he is to sing
Nabucco
in January or in Gaveau, for a recital in March.
If the Covid allows it.