José Plácido Domingo Embil was born on January 21, 1941. He is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded more than 100 complete operas and is known for his ability to perform in many languages, including Italian, French, German, Spanish, English, and Russian. He has performed in the most famous opera houses around the world. Although he began his career as a lirico-spinto tenor, he became well known for roles such as Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José, and Canio. Later, he took on more dramatic roles and was highly praised for his performance as Otello. In the early 2010s, he shifted to singing baritone parts, including Simon Boccanegra. As of 2020, he has performed in 151 different roles.
Domingo has also been successful in popular and Latin music. He has won fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards. Some of his records have received silver, gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications. His first pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), helped him gain fame beyond the opera world. The album’s title song, performed with country and folk singer John Denver, sold nearly four million copies and led to many television appearances. He has also appeared in many operas that were released in movie theaters and on television, especially under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli. In 1990, he began performing with tenors Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras as part of The Three Tenors. Their first recording became the best-selling classical album of all time.
Domingo grew up working with his parents in a zarzuela company in Mexico. He has since supported this style of Spanish opera. He also conducts operas and concerts and was the general director of the Los Angeles Opera in California from 2003 to 2019. He was the artistic director and later general director of the Washington National Opera from 1996 to 2011. He has worked on many humanitarian projects and helped young opera singers through the international singing competition Operalia. Since 2019, he has performed on stages in Berlin, Budapest, Cologne, Graz, Madrid, Mérida, Milan, Monte Carlo, Moscow, Munich, Palermo, Rome, Salzburg, Sofia, Verona, Versailles, Vienna, and Zurich.
Early life
Plácido Domingo was born on January 21, 1941, in the Retiro district of Madrid, Spain, to Pepita Embil and Plácido Domingo Ferrer. His mother said that she and her husband knew he would become a musician by the time he was five years old, because he could hum complicated music from a zarzuela after watching a performance. In 1949, just days before his eighth birthday, he moved to Mexico with his family. His parents, both singers, had decided to start a zarzuela company there after a successful tour of Latin America. After arriving in Mexico, Domingo won a singing contest for boys, and his parents sometimes included him and his sister in children’s roles for their zarzuela productions. Domingo studied piano from a young age, first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, where he entered at age fourteen. At the conservatory, he took conducting classes taught by Igor Markevitch and studied voice with Carlo Morelli, the brother of Renato Zanelli. The two brothers were well-known for performing both baritone and tenor roles. Domingo’s time at the conservatory was the only formal vocal training he received; he never studied singing privately with a teacher.
In 1957, at age sixteen, Domingo made his first professional appearance by playing the piano for his mother during a concert in Mérida, Yucatán. That same year, he made his major zarzuela debut in Manuel Fernández Caballero’s Gigantes y cabezudos, singing a baritone role. At that time, he worked with his parents’ zarzuela company, taking on several baritone roles and helping other singers as an accompanist. The following year, the tenor in another company’s touring production of Luisa Fernanda became ill. In his first performance as a tenor, Domingo replaced the sick singer, even though he worried the part’s high notes were too difficult for him. Later that year, he sang the tenor role of Rafael in the Spanish opera El gato montés, showing his willingness to try tenor roles, even though he still considered himself a baritone. On May 12, 1959, he performed the baritone role (sometimes sung by basses) of Pascual in Emilio Arrieta’s Marina at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara. Like El gato montés, Marina is an opera written in the zarzuela musical style, though both are usually performed by zarzuela companies. In addition to zarzuela work, one of his earliest performances was a small role in the first Latin American production of the musical My Fair Lady, where he also worked as an assistant conductor and assistant coach. While part of the company, the group performed the musical 185 times in different cities across Mexico.
In 1959, Domingo auditioned for the Mexico National Opera at the Palacio de Bellas Artes as a baritone, but was asked to read the tenor aria “Amor ti vieta” from Fedora at first sight. He was accepted as a tenor comprimario and as a tutor for other singers. In what he considered his operatic debut, Domingo played the minor role of Borsa in Verdi’s Rigoletto on September 23 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in a production with veteran American baritone Cornell MacNeil and bass-baritone Norman Treigle. Later, he performed as the Padre Confessor in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Altoum and Pang in Turandot, Normanno and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and other small parts. While at the National Opera, he also appeared in a production of Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow, where he alternated between the roles of Camille and Danilo (both originally written for tenors, though Danilo is often sung by baritones). Domingo made his debut in Verdi’s Otello at Bellas Artes at age 21 in the summer of 1962, not in the title role for which he is now internationally famous, but in the small comprimario part of Cassio.
To earn extra money, the young Domingo played the piano for a ballet company and for a program on Mexico’s newly founded cultural television station. The program included music from zarzuelas, operettas, operas, and musical comedies. He acted in small parts in plays by Federico García Lorca, Luigi Pirandello, and Anton Chekhov. He also helped arrange songs and provided backup vocals for Los Camisas Negras, a rock-and-roll band led by César Costa, in the late 1950s. In his autobiography, Domingo reflected on the benefits of his busy and varied career as a teenager: “Today, when people ask me how I manage to hold up under my extremely heavy work load, I answer that I became accustomed to intense activity very early in my life and that I love it now as I loved it then.”
Career
In 1961, Domingo made his first appearance in an opera as the main character Alfredo in La traviata at the Teatro de la Ciudad in Monterrey. Later that year, he performed in the United States with the Dallas Civic Opera, where he sang the role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor alongside Joan Sutherland in the title role and Ettore Bastianini as Enrico. In 1962, he returned to Texas to sing the role of Edgardo in the same opera with Lily Pons at the Fort Worth Opera. This was Pons’ final operatic performance. That November, Domingo sang the role of Cassio in Otello alongside Mario del Monaco in Hartford, Connecticut. At the end of 1962, he signed a six-month contract with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, but later extended it and stayed for two and a half years, performing 280 times in 12 different roles.
In June 1965, after finishing his contract in Tel Aviv, Domingo auditioned at the New York City Opera. He was hired to make his New York debut as Don José in Carmen with the company, but his debut happened earlier than planned on June 17, 1965, when he replaced a sick tenor in Madama Butterfly. In February 1966, he sang the title role in the U.S. premiere of Ginastera’s Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera, which received much praise. A New York Times review said: "Mr. Domingo was as impressive as ever—a strong, large-voiced singer who looks exactly as one would imagine a hero from Gothic Spain." This performance also marked the opening of the City Opera’s new home at Lincoln Center.
His official debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York happened on September 28, 1968, when he replaced Franco Corelli in Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Tebaldi. Two years before this, he had already performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Lewisohn Stadium in Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. Since then, he has opened the season at the Metropolitan Opera 21 times, more than any other singer, surpassing the previous record held by Enrico Caruso by four. He has performed with the company every season since 1968–1969. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968; at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in 1969; at Arena di Verona on July 16, 1969, as Calaf in Turandot with Birgit Nilsson; at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company in 1970; and at Covent Garden in 1971. In 1975, Domingo made his debut at the prestigious Salzburg Festival, singing the title role in Don Carlo in an all-star cast with Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli, Mirella Freni, and Christa Ludwig, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. After this, he returned to Salzburg for many operas and concert performances. He has now performed at nearly every important opera house and festival worldwide.
Domingo first sang the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca in a 1961 performance in Mexico City. He sang Cavaradossi at the Met on February 15, 1969, with Nilsson (broadcast). In 1971, he made his Covent Garden debut in the role. He continued to perform this part for many years, especially at the Met and in Vienna, eventually performing it more than any other role. In September 1975, Domingo made his debut in the title role of Verdi’s Otello at the Hamburg State Opera. This became his signature role and one of the operas he performed most frequently (over 200 times). He recorded the part three times in the studio and appeared in four officially released filmed versions of the opera. Oscar-winning Shakespearean actor Laurence Olivier said after seeing Domingo in the role: "Domingo plays Othello as well as I do and he has that voice."
Domingo has also conducted operas and occasionally symphony orchestras. On October 7, 1973, he conducted his first opera performance, La traviata starring Patricia Brooks at the New York City Opera. The same year, he released his debut album as a conductor, Domingo Conducts Milnes/Milnes Conducts Domingo, with baritone Sherrill Milnes. He increasingly appeared as a conductor at major opera houses worldwide. In late 1983, he led a performance of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden, which was televised. Three years later, he made a studio recording of the operetta, in which he both conducted and sang the role of Alfred.
The 1980s were a time of growing success and fame for Domingo. In 1981, he gained recognition outside the opera world when he recorded the song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with American country/folk singer John Denver. This success led to many more albums of popular and Latin music.
Family and personal life
Plácido Domingo was born to Plácido Francisco Domingo Ferrer (8 March 1907 – 22 November 1987) and Josefa "Pepita" Embil Echániz (28 February 1918 – 28 August 1994), both Spanish performers known for their work in zarzuela, a type of Spanish opera. Domingo’s father was of Aragonese and Catalan heritage, while his mother was from Gipuzkoa, a region in the Basque Country. His father began his career as a violinist in opera and zarzuela orchestras and later sang baritone roles in zarzuelas. Despite damaging his voice by singing while sick, he continued performing until the 1970s. His mother was a well-known soprano who first performed on stage at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She met her husband while performing in Federico Moreno Torroba’s Sor Navarra at age 21. Experts encouraged his father to sing Wagnerian heldentenor roles, while the Liceu offered his mother a contract to perform in operas. In 1946, Moreno Torroba and Domingo’s parents formed a zarzuela company that toured Latin America. Later, they moved permanently to Mexico and created their own zarzuela troupe, the Domingo-Embil Company. They also had a daughter, Maria José "Mari Pepa" Domingo de Fernandez (1942–2015).
On 29 August 1957, at age 16, Domingo married Ana María Guerra Cué (1938–2006), a fellow piano student. Their son, José Plácido Domingo Guerra (called "Pepe" as a child and later "Joe"), was born on 16 June 1958. However, the couple divorced shortly after their marriage. On 1 August 1962, Domingo married Marta Ornelas (born 1935), a lyric soprano from Veracruz, Mexico, whom he met during his time at a music school. That same year, Marta was named "Mexican Singer of the Year." After their wedding, the couple performed together at the Israel National Opera. When Marta became pregnant, she left her singing career to focus on family. They have two sons: Plácido Francisco (known as Plácido Domingo Jr.), born 21 October 1965, and Alvaro Maurizio, born 11 October 1968.
After living in Israel, Domingo and his family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the 1960s. Later, he lived in Manhattan and Barcelona. He still keeps an apartment in New York and a home in Madrid, his birthplace. During breaks from work, he visits his vacation home in Acapulco, Mexico, to spend time with family.
In March 2010, Domingo had surgery for colon cancer. In July 2013, he was hospitalized in Madrid after suffering a pulmonary embolism. He was released on 14 July and expected to recover fully. In October 2015, he was hospitalized for a cholecystectomy (gallbladder surgery) and missed the first five performances of Tosca he was scheduled to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.
Sexual harassment allegations
In August 2019, Domingo was accused of sexual harassment by several female colleagues, some of whom had worked with him for up to 30 years. No official charges were filed, and there were no court cases or convictions. Despite this, Domingo later resigned from his role as general manager of the Los Angeles Opera. He stated he made the decision with a "heavy heart," but said it was best for the opera company due to the recent allegations.
In late February 2020, Domingo apologized to colleagues who felt uncomfortable or harmed by his actions. He stated he never intended to hurt or offend anyone and claimed, "I have never behaved aggressively toward anyone, nor have I ever hindered or harmed anyone’s career. Instead, I have supported the opera industry and helped many singers advance their careers over the past 50 years."
An investigation by the Los Angeles Opera found the allegations to be credible in part because the accounts from multiple people were similar. The investigation noted that Domingo was sincere in denying the claims but found some of his explanations to be unclear or not fully aware of the issues. Gibson Dunn, the law firm involved, found no evidence that Domingo had engaged in unfair behavior, such as offering job opportunities in exchange for favors or punishing women by not casting them. The firm explained that casting and hiring decisions are complex and involve many people. The investigation also pointed out that the opera company had poor communication and lacked understanding about sexual harassment.
After recovering from COVID-19, Domingo told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the accusations were false. He said, "When I knew I had COVID, I promised myself that if I survived, I would fight to clear my name. I never abused anyone. I will repeat that as long as I live."
Recordings
Plácido Domingo has made more than 200 recordings, most of which are full-length operas. He has recorded almost all of the main tenor roles in opera, with some roles recorded more than once. As a teenager, he first appeared in very small parts in the Spanish-language original cast versions of the musicals My Fair Lady (1959) and Redhead (1960). In 1968, he released his first solo album, Recital of Italian Operatic Arias (also known as Bel Canto Domingo). The album, conducted by Nello Santi, won the Grand Prix du Disque. In 1969, Domingo's first recital album for RCA Red Seal was released, and he recorded his first complete opera in the studio, Il trovatore, with Leontyne Price and Sherrill Milnes, also for RCA. RCA became his main record label during the 1970s. RCA recorded Domingo, Milnes, and Price together several more times, both in complete operas and recital discs. From the 1970s through the early 2000s, Domingo recorded many complete operas. Starting with Il tabarro in 1970, Les Troyens in 1983, and ending with Edgar in 2006, he recorded all of Puccini's operatic roles meant for tenors. Among his albums is a box set of every major tenor aria Verdi composed, including several rare versions in languages different from the original operas, written for specific performances. He has also recorded the vocal parts in many symphonic works and conducted on some of his albums.
In August 2005, EMI Classics released a studio recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, in which Domingo and Operalia winner Nina Stemme sang the title roles. A review in The Economist praised the recording for its musical lyricism and sexual passion. The review also described Domingo's July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre at Covent Garden as unforgettable and luminous. More recently, Domingo has appeared with Angela Gheorghiu on a recording of Fedora, an opera in which he often performed onstage, and as the baritone in a live version of Giovanna d'Arco with Anna Netrebko. In September 2011, at age 70, he signed an exclusive record contract with Sony Classics.
In addition to classical recordings, Domingo has released many crossover albums. His non-operatic recordings increased after his pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), went gold and eventually platinum. His other popular music recordings include My Life for a Song (1983), Save Your Nights for Me (1985), and the British gold record Be My Love (1990). His English-language version of "Bésame Mucho" from My Life for a Song received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1984. The following year, he won a Grammy in the same category for his collection of Ernesto Lecuona songs, Always in My Heart (Siempre en mi corazón). He also won a second Grammy that year for Carmen, conducted by Lorin Maazel. In 2012, he recorded Songs with Josh Groban, Susan Boyle, and jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr., among others. In 2015, he released a holiday album, My Christmas, including duets with Idina Menzel, Jackie Evancho, Plácido Domingo Jr., The Piano Guys, and others.
Since the early 1980s, Domingo has released several Latin albums, including two featuring the music of Mexican songwriter Agustín Lara. He devoted two albums, Adoro (1982) and 100 años de Mariachi (1999), entirely to Mexican music. 100 años de Mariachi, a rancheras collection, went platinum in the United States and gold in Mexico. He later said that the Grammy he won for 100 años de Mariachi was the award that meant the most to him of all he has received.
Appearances on film and television
Domingo has performed in several opera films. Three of his theatrical opera movies from the 1980s received important awards and honors, including Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. Zeffirelli's La Traviata and Otello were nominated for Academy Awards. The soundtracks of La Traviata and Rosi's Carmen won Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording. Domingo also appeared in many opera films for television, including Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's Madama Butterfly with Mirella Freni, Gianfranco de Bosio's Tosca with Raina Kabaivanska, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's Tosca with Catherine Malfitano (Emmy Award), Franco Zeffirelli's Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, and more recently, Marco Bellocchio's Rigoletto a Mantova.
Over many years, he has performed in numerous Live from the Metropolitan Opera telecasts and radio broadcasts. He has also appeared in televised performances from other opera houses. In 1978, he starred in the La Scala production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, which was the first time Hungarian soprano Sylvia Sass performed at La Scala. Many of his concerts and zarzuela performances have been televised. In addition to his filmed opera and concert work, he has made frequent guest appearances on television. Domingo appeared on The Cosby Show Season 5 as Alberto Santiago, a colleague of Dr. Cliff Huxtable. In 1989, the international television series Return Journey featured Domingo returning to his home city of Madrid to reflect on life there while recording an album of Zarzuela arias for EMI. On the 1993 Academy Awards telecast, he performed the song "Beautiful Maria of My Soul" from the movie The Mambo Kings, which was nominated for Best Original Song. He was the first Spaniard to perform at an Academy Awards ceremony. He had previously presented the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with Faye Dunaway at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985.
Domingo helped produce the critically acclaimed 1998 Mexican film The Other Conquest, directed by Salvador Carrasco and produced by his son Alvaro. He also sang the original aria "Mater Aeterna," composed by Samuel Zyman with lyrics by Carrasco. He was also heard performing the song "In Pace" during the closing credits of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996). In 2008, Domingo provided the voice of the long-haired Chihuahua named Montezuma in Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua. He also appeared as Manolo's great-grandfather in the animated film The Book of Life in 2014.
In December 1992, Domingo worked with fellow operatic tenor José Carreras and pop music legend Diana Ross in a televised Christmas-themed concert. Vienna was chosen to host the event because it is known as a music capital and for its festive Christmas atmosphere. The Wiener Symphoniker, led by maestro Vjekoslav Šutej, provided the orchestral music, and the Gumpoldskirchen Children's Choir provided choral vocals. On December 23, 1992, the first of what became a series of Christmas in Vienna concerts was broadcast worldwide to hundreds of millions of people. Domingo returned to Vienna for many more Christmas in Vienna concerts, performing with stars and friends from pop and classical music, including Dionne Warwick, Charles Aznavour, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church, Natalie Cole, Riccardo Cocciante, Patricia Kaas, Luciano Pavarotti, Tony Bennett, and others.
Cultural references
During the 1980s and 1990s, popular culture, especially television, often included references to Plácido Domingo. He was frequently shown as a famous opera singer or linked to the influential group known as the Three Tenors. In 1987, Sesame Street, a long-running U.S. children’s television show, introduced a puppet named Placido Flamingo, a pink singing bird. The character appeared on a segment called "Live from the Nest," a playful version of "Live from the Met," which is a real opera broadcast. In 1989, during a special episode of Sesame Street… 20 Years & Still Counting, Domingo appeared with the puppet, singing a song together. After the puppeteer, Richard Hunt, passed away in 1992, the character was not used again.
In 2009, the Australian-Canadian cartoon Pearlie featured a character named Placido, who was the father of a family of opera-singing fleas. Though not related to opera, a character in the Japanese anime Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (2008–2011) was named after Domingo as part of a group called the Three Emperors, a humorous take on the Three Tenors.
In 2007, Domingo made a brief appearance on The Simpsons, a long-running American TV show that has won over thirty Emmy Awards. He voiced an animated version of himself in an episode titled "The Homer of Seville," where Homer Simpson becomes an opera singer. After a performance, Homer meets Domingo, who jokes about being called "P. Dingo" and offers singing advice. Earlier, in 1995, Domingo appeared as an animated character in an episode of Animaniacs, and in 1999, he was featured in an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch.
Domingo, along with singers Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, inspired the 2001 film Off Key, directed by Manuel Gómez Pereira. The movie’s main character, Ricardo Palacios, shares some traits with Domingo, such as discovering new talent and performing in different musical styles. However, the story is fictional and unrelated to Domingo’s real life. Off Key was the most expensive film ever made in Spain at the time.
In 2010, author Elizabeth George included Domingo in her mystery novel This Body of Death, where a character’s daughter admires him. Domingo was also mentioned in a 1996 episode of Seinfeld, a highly popular TV show, and appeared frequently in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond as Raymond’s mother’s favorite opera singer. Domingo has also been featured on the covers of several opera-related books, representing the genre. These references show how widely known and influential Domingo has become in both popular and high culture. By 2011, Spanish author Rubén Amón wrote a book titled Plácido Domingo: Un coloso en el teatro del mundo, analyzing Domingo’s impact as a cultural and social figure.
Repertoire
Plácido Domingo has sung 151 roles in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, and Russian. His main roles are in Italian operas, including Otello, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don Carlo, Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West, and Radames in Aida. He also performs French operas such as Don José in Carmen, Samson in Samson and Delilah, Énée in Les Troyens, and Hoffmann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. In German operas, he has performed in Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Siegmund in Die Walküre. He has performed in more operas by Giuseppe Verdi than any other singer. Domingo has created original roles in eight operas that were performed for the first time publicly: El último sueño by Vásquez, El poeta by Moreno Torroba, Goya by Menotti, Divinas palabras by García Abril, Luna by Cano, Nicholas and Alexandra by Drattell, The First Emperor by Tan Dun, and Il Postino by Catán. He also performed in a special version of The Enchanted Island. Additionally, he performed in the first U.S. performances of Don Rodrigo and Cyrano de Bergerac. He continues to add new roles to his list, most recently performing as Schicchi in Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi in September 2015.
After singing baritone roles, he performed as Conte Di Luna in Il Trovatore, an opera in which he had previously sung as Manrico, a tenor role. His last major role in a full-length opera was the title role in Nabucco in a production by Thaddeus Strassberger in December 2019 in Valencia. During the curtain call, many supporters of the singer dropped flyers to show their support.
Awards and honors
Plácido Domingo has received many awards and honors for his achievements in music and for his work with charities through benefit concerts. In 1978, when Domingo was 37 years old, the city of Madrid placed a commemorative plaque at his birthplace, located at 34 Calle Ibiza near Buen Retiro Park.
Domingo won his first Grammy Award in 1971 and has received eight more since then. He has also won five Latin Grammy Awards, including one for being named Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.
He is a Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and has been given many honorary doctorates. He has also been honored as an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.
In 2006, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Other awards include the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art (1st class, 1992); the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2007); the French Légion d'honneur; the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle; the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Arts (1991); the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom; and a Medal of Honour from Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman in 2011. He was the first recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize in 2009.
In 2012, Domingo was inducted into Gramophone’s first Hall of Fame.
In April 2014, Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Music. During his speech, Domingo said, “It is a great pleasure to connect Boston and Valencia, as both cities have been important in my career.” He performed Handel’s Messiah with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the start of his career and gave his first Bohème performance at the Palau de les Arts.
In June 2018, Iberia Airlines honored Domingo by naming an Airbus A350 aircraft after him.
Humanitarian works and initiatives
Domingo has worked a lot in humanitarian efforts and volunteering. He has performed at many charity concerts to help people in need, including those affected by disasters, charities, and music groups. He has also held different volunteer roles in the arts and sports. In 1986, Domingo performed at several charity events to collect money for people who were hurt in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. He also made an album from one of these events to support the cause. On August 21, 2007, a statue was unveiled in his honor to thank him for helping earthquake victims and for his artistic work. The statue, made by Alejandra Zúñiga, is two meters tall, weighs about 300 kg (660 lbs), and is part of the "Grandes valores" (Great values) program. It was created in Mexico City using keys donated by people.
Since the earthquake, Domingo has continued helping others in Mexico and other countries. After Hurricane Pauline damaged the Pacific coast of Southern Mexico in 1997, he gave two charity concerts in Acapulco to raise money for building 150 new homes for people who lost their homes in the storm. In December 2003, he performed in Cancún to support the Ciudad de la Alegria Foundation, which helps people in need, such as low-income individuals, orphans, expectant mothers, immigrants, rehabilitated legal offenders, and the terminally ill. Outside of Mexico, Domingo and Katherine Jenkins performed in a charity concert in Athens on June 27, 2007, to raise money for people affected by the conflict in Darfur. The event was organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
On March 4, 2006, Domingo sang at the New Orleans Opera Association's Gala Benefit Concert, "A Night For New Orleans," to help rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina damaged it. Before the concert, he said, "MUSIC IS THE VOICE OF HOPE!" Other opera singers, including Operalia winner Elizabeth Futral, performed with him. The event raised $700,000 for the city's recovery. On March 23, 2008, the New Orleans City Council named the stage at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in Louis Armstrong Park the "Plácido Domingo stage" to honor his work during the concert. In early 2009, Domingo performed with the New Orleans Opera in a ceremony to reopen the theatre. He told reporters, "The restoration of New Orleans' Mahalia Jackson Theater is a symbol of new life for the city after the 2005 disaster, but it is also a symbol of hope and faith in the future for an artistic organization."
In June 2010, Domingo became President of Europa Nostra, an organization that promotes European cultural heritage. The next year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter invited Domingo to join a group working to improve FIFA, which had been accused of accepting bribes from countries wanting to host the World Cup. Domingo also supports environmental efforts. In 2007, he used the BMW Hydrogen 7, a car designed to promote hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels, along with other leaders in entertainment, government, and the environment. He also supports the Hear the World initiative as an ambassador to raise awareness about hearing and hearing loss.
Domingo has focused on helping young opera singers grow in their careers. In 1993, he started Operalia, an international opera competition for talented young singers. Winners get opportunities to perform in opera ensembles around the world. Many successful opera singers, such as Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Erwin Schrott, Giuseppe Filianoti, Angel Blue, Aida Garifullina, Sonya Yoncheva, David Bizic, Ana María Martínez, Nina Stemme, and José Cura, have won prizes in the competition. Domingo has often performed with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, who won three prizes at the 1999 Operalia competition.
In addition to Operalia, Domingo has helped young artists by giving them special attention. In 2001, he invited Daniel Rodríguez, known as the "Singing Policeman," to join the Vilar-Domingo Young Artists program to develop his operatic skills. Domingo has also created training programs for young opera singers at the Los Angeles Opera and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. In September 2016, he performed at a Los Angeles benefit for the Esperanza Azteca Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, supporting young musicians in the area.