Opera star Placido Domingo on Sunday received a standing ovation for his 50th anniversary gala concert at Milan’s La Scala and returned the appreciation with a rare a cappella performance.
Standing alone on the stage holding three yellow roses, Domingo serenaded the audience with a favorite Spanish zarzuela, Non Puede Ser.
By then, after more than half an hour of applause and a standing ovation rare for the storied opera house, Domingo and his costars for the evening, the choir and orchestra had already performed two encores. He alone emerged for the third.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Domingo, 78, appeared overwhelmed by the reception, and at one point kissed the stage where he performed for the first time on Dec. 7, 1969, in the title role of Verdi’s Ernani. In all, he has sung 135 times at La Scala, in 22 operas.
La Scala’s anniversary fell during a year that has seen US opera houses cancel Domingo’s scheduled appearances, following reports by The Associated Press that more than 20 women had accused the star of sexual harassment or inappropriate sexually charged behavior.
Domingo has denied the allegations, and after a period of silence, has only recently begun giving interviews to select publications ahead of European appearances.
In the interviews he claimed he always behaved like a gentleman and said he never abused his power. He has also said he intends to continue performing at least through his planned engagements running through 2021.
While in the US all of his published dates were canceled, the singer has received overwhelming support from Europe’s opera houses — which have all maintained his dates — and fans alike.
Many at Sunday’s performance focused on the quality of his voice, its unique timber, while weighing the art against the impossibility for outsiders to know what happened between Domingo and his accusers.
“I’m very much impressed. Placido Domingo’s voice is still unbelievable, if you see how old he is,” said Doris Papst, 80, who traveled with a group from Baden-Baden, Germany, for the gala concert. “What has happened with him with #MeToo in the United States is horrible. We all have to answer in our lives for our behavior. We should not be the judges.”
Giuseppina Uscidda has been following Domingo at La Scala for 40 years, and said the long applause was well-deserved. “His voice is beautiful,” Uscidda said. “This evening makes clear how much the audience loves him.”
A couple of dozen fans waited outside until midnight to greet the star, and they were not disappointed.
Domingo came downstairs and stood behind a reception desk, where he started signing autographs.
“I saw him for the first time in Hamburg in 1978 and since then I am a convinced Domingo admirer,” said one of those waiting, Dagmar Engdken, citing not only his artistic abilities, but also his social engagement for people in need, including benefit concerts.
“I will come hear him as long as I can, and as long as he sings,” Engdken said.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate