Plácido Domingo

Plácido Domingo KBE (born 21 January 1941) is an Spanish operatic tenor and conductor. He is often regarded as one of the leading tenors of his generation.

Life and career

Born José Plácido Domingo Embil in Madrid, Spain, the son of singers who later moved to Mexico, where he made his vocal study. He began his career as a baritone singing in operettas but quickly retrained as a tenor. He made his official operatic debut in Mexico City in 1961, as Alfredo in La traviata.

He sang in Tel Aviv from 1962 to 1965 in a wide variety of roles often in Hebrew. He made his American debut at the New York City Opera in 1965, and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1968. This was followed by La Scala in Milan (1969), the Royal Opera House in London (1971), the Paris Opéra (1973), and most of the great opera houses of the world.

Although mostly associated with the Italian and French repertoire, he has in recent years sung several Wagner roles, and turned to conducting. He is the General Director of the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera.

He was one of "The Three Tenors", alongside Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, and got 1.5 million dollars each time they sang.