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Placido Domingo (born January 21, 1941) is a
famous Spain|Spanish  opera singer. Though he
started off his career as a baritone, he quickly
retrained as a tenor and became well-known for a
voice that was versatile, strong and possessed of
a ringing and clear tone throughout its range; his
repertoire includes roles in French
language|French (Faust, Werther), German
language|German (Lohengrin, Parsifal) and Italian
language|Italian (Il Trovatore, Don Carlos|Don
Carlo, Otello).  In recent years, Domingo has also
turned his hand to conducting opera. He also been
appointed artistic director of two opera
companies, first the Washington Opera and later
the Los Angeles Opera.

Domingo was born in Madrid, Spain, but moved to
Mexico as a child with his family, who ran a
zarzuela company . In Mexico City he studied music
at the National Conservatory.  He learned piano
and conducting, but made his stage debut as a
tenor in 1959 as Alfredo in La Traviata in
Monterrey, MĂ©xico.  In 1962 he joined the Israeli
National Opera, and first performed at the
Metropolitan Opera|Met in New York in 1968.  He
made his debut at La Scala in 1969 and at Covent
Garden in 1971.  He received Kennedy Center Honors
in 2000.

In 1981 Domingo gained considerable recognition
outside of the opera world when he recorded the
song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with the late United
States|American folk music|folk/popular music|pop
music singer John Denver. He became a household
name in 1990 when, with Luciano Pavarotti and
José Carreras, he participated in the The Three
Tenors concert at the opening of the
Football_World_Cup_1990|1990 World Cup in Rome.
The event was originally conceived to raise money
for Carreras's foundation and was later repeated a
number of times to mixed critical response.

Domingo has appeared in at least three opera
videos of note: Carmen, Otello, and "La Traviata".
He has appeared on television, both in "Zarzuela"
evenings, and "Live at the Met" broadcasts. Among
his many recordings is a boxed set of every tenor
aria Verdi wrote, including several
rarely-performed versions, in different languages
from the original operas, which Verdi wrote for
specific performances.

In August 2005 EMI Classics released a new
recording
http://www.emiclassics.de/xml/6/400046/5580062.htm
l of
Richard_Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in which
Domingo sings
the title role of Tristan.
A review of this recording, headlined "Vocal
perfections",
that appeared in the 8 August 2005 issue of The
Economist
begins with the word "Monumental" and ends with
the words, "a
musical lyricism and a sexual passion that make
the cost and
the effort entirely worthwhile."  According to
this review,
Domingo has sung at least 115 different operatic
roles, and it characterized
his July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's
Die Walküre
at Covent Garden as "unforgettable" and
"luminous".
This review also remarks on how Domingo is still,
at the age of 64,
taking on roles that he has not previously
performed.

== External link ==
*http://classicalautographs.com/people/opera/placi
do_domingo/index.html Placido Domingo, Tenor (with
pictures, sounds, a biography, and more)
*http://www.emiclassics.com/phpNewSite/artists/art
ists_disk.php?id=14  Discography on EMI Classics
website
*http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,1
1710,1525039,00.html Interview of Domingo from The
Guardian, 10 July 2005
*http://www.placidodomingo.com Plácido Domingo's
website