Tag Archives: Placido Domingo
The End of Right Thinking
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th September 2019Last night Verdi’s Macbeth was performed at the Met without Placido Domingo in the title role as originally scheduled. Domingo is the latest casualty in the ongoing culture war against naughty or really bad behavior depending on your vantage point. More about vantage points later. Fifty one years at the Met and the tenor instantly…
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Nabucco in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th January 2017In a geriatric special, the Met televised its 2001 production of Verdi’s Nabucco featuring septuagenarians Placido Domingo and James Levine. The former in the title role and the latter behind the baton. This pairing of ancients would suggest that everyone should be eligible for a senior ticket. But everyone in my theater was already eligible….
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Placido Domingo 72 Today
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st January 2014Today is the great artist’s 72nd birthday. His career has been unique. The best way to observe his anniversary is to let him do it himself. Listen to this remarkable recording of the great aria from Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine made in performance in San Francisco 42 years ago. At this time he was already 15 years into…
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Placido Domingo’s Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st January 2013This is a repeat of last year’s observance of Placido Domingo’s birthday To mark the 72nd anniversary of Placido Domingo’s birth (January 21, 1941), here are eleven photographs of the great artist taken by Robert Cahen. There is little to say about Domingo’s career that isn’t self evident. He’s had more roles than Parker House. He’s a…
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The Photographs of Robert Cahen – Simon Boccanegra in LA
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th February 2012The following photographs of Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez were taken by Robert Cahen on February 5, 2012. The occasion was a dress rehearsal of the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. The production is from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
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The Photos of Robert Cahen – Placido Domingo
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th January 2012To mark the 70th anniversary of Placido Domingo’s birth (January 21, 1941), here are eleven photographs of the great artist taken by Robert Cahen. There is little to say about Domingo’s career that isn’t self evident. He’s had more roles than Parker House. He’s a tenor; he’s a baritone; he’s a conductor; he’s an administrator. He’s…
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Or Son Sei Mesi
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th September 2010Puccini’s cowboy opera, La Fanciulla del West, is returning to the Met this season after an absence of 17 years. 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the opera’s world premiere at the Met. Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso sang the leads under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Puccini supervised the production which was directed by…
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Simon Boccanegra in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th February 2010Verdi’s majestically flawed masterpiece was televised February 6, 2010. Simon Boccanegra stays in the repertory because of it’s glorious music and its great title role. It always fails to completely satisfy because of its insane libretto and because of it’s imperfect structure. Piave’s libretto makes that of Il Trovatore look like the exemplar of the…
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Hoffmann’s Epilogue
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th December 2009As promised, here are five different versions of the conclusion of Offenbach’s Les Contes D’Hoffmann. They are presented in chronological order. The first is taken from the 1948 recording of the opera under Andre Cluytens. Hoffmann Epilogue – Cluytens Jobin. This is a French production and my favorite. The Hoffmann was the French-Canadian tenor Raoul…
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