A career before which you have to sink on your knees, but which has also developed age and beauty spots: For the 80th birthday of Plácido Domingo.
This magical power still works: when he picks up the applause, people can no longer sit.
And sometimes there is the standing ovation before Plácido Domingo has sung just one note.
That happened in the Salzburg Festival summer of 2019, during a concert performance of Verdi's “Luisa Miller”.
The jubilation was less about the singing and more about demonstrative following:
This is more than a beauty mark in the late autumn of the professional tenorissimo and today's baritoneissimo.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Opera (whose boss Domingo was once) found "inappropriate behavior" in ten cases.
The affairs are tarnishing a unique career, the end of which is not yet in sight: "I cried when I sang again after five months away from the stage", the Spanish newspaper "La Razón" quoted him recently.
The beginning of his career, on the other hand, can be defined to some extent, that was in 1959 in a “Rigoletto” supporting role at the Opera of Mexico City.
It gets more difficult with the year of birth.
There are well-known authors who bring 1934 into play and also justify this.
For the sake of peace and the official reading, however, assume 1941 - accordingly, the incomparable, who was born in Madrid, will celebrate his 80th birthday this Thursday.
A life between gluttonous and curiosity
How often Domingo was on stage, in how many roles, that almost blows a microchip.
Sometimes he did it twice a day.
In the morning a recording session in London, in the evening a performance in Vienna, that too was part of everyday business.
You can blame the marathon man for that.
And yet he did not tick off Divo roles, but expanded his repertoire to the fringes.
There are also works such as “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Franco Alfano or “The first Emperor” by Tan Dun, for example, that were only noticed thanks to Domingo's prominence.
A life between gluttonous and curiosity, no colleague has copied that either.
It all started with my father's Zarzuela troop in Mexico.
After first attempts at opera, Domingo moved to Tel Aviv in 1961, where he tried new roles almost every month.
1967 debuts in Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna followed, one year later in New York.
For the rest, including his most lucrative project as a third of the “Three Tenors”, this page is not enough.
The tenor twentieth quickly became a precocious triumphant, who had already made his Hamburg Otello debut in 1975 on the high plateau of the hero subject.
Domingo owes all of this to stable vocal cords.
The star himself knows that he was never a stratospheric tenor and had to fight his way through the regions for the high C. That, too, made his singing, this sound that has become virility, these tones of liquid bronze, so irresistible.
The vocal slalom was not his domain, but the wide, creamy sound stream that gave birth to the most spectacular moments under dynamic pressure.
Effective unitary drama
Who was the best, greatest tenor of the century remains the eternal argument among the extremists from the fan circles.
Domingo did not have the stylistic eloquence of Nicolai Gedda, the metallic overwhelming power of Jussi Björling or the unadulterated expression of Luciano Pavarotti.
But he's the greatest all-rounder - which also poses problems.
The Domingo sound is recognizable from the first millisecond, but the interpretations have become more predictable.
Whether Hoffmann, Don José or Siegmund, recently in the baritone subject Germont or Nabucco - the Divo has a recipe that has been tried and tested for decades.
A thoroughly effective unitary drama that has something stereotypical about it.
You don't have to express it in the same way as voice connoisseur Jürgen Kesting, who in the standard work “The Great Singers” rated this as “non-characters overwhelmed by feeling”.
It is hard to say which of his well over 100 recordings is the best, which easily outperforms the competition.
Perhaps it is an early one, from 1970. For Verdi's “Don Carlo” Domingo stood in front of the microphones, together with Montserrat Caballé and Ruggero Raimondi, at the podium: Carlo Maria Giulini.
It is sung in a technically impressive manner, with the unbroken, true charm of the youthful seducer.
One of the best Verdi recordings ever.
Domingo made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in 1972 as Rodolfo in “La bohème”.
In the run-up to the Munich appearances as Cavaradossi, Werther, Otello or Siegmund, the aficionados were soon scrambling for the tickets.
As a conductor, he was at the podium here as elsewhere.
The mechanisms of Domingo's self-assessment did not quite work on the second pillar of his career.
When he stepped in front of the curtain in Bayreuth in 2018 after a “Valkyrie” with alarming orchestral stumbling blocks, there were boos.
Career culmination with two baritone roles
Almost as important as his role as a singer legend is that of enabler.
Domingo is one of the biggest sponsors of young talent.
Those who are ahead in their “Operalia” singing competition almost no longer have to worry about a career.
The offspring were also popular at “his” opera houses in Los Angeles and Washington, where he had to give up leadership positions.
Domingo has been married to the soprano Marta Ornelas for the second time since 1962. He is now the father of three sons and a multiple grandfather. The fact that he returned to the baritone years with his Berlin debut as Simone Boccanegra in 2009 is often laughed at. But with this role and the Francesco in "I due Foscari" he crowned his career. Faithful and intensely drawn age roles are those against which other Verdi attempts as Posa or Luna fall away. Herbert von Karajan wanted to get the star for a baritone role much earlier. Allegedly he offered him Don Giovanni. Domingo said no. Perhaps the interpretation would have become too realistic.
