In the midst of this week's commercial-network commotion, PBS drops in a Placido Domingo special on Friday. This varies a lot from market to market -- it airs Friday on Cincinnati, but not in Lansing -- so I'll put the story here. Check your local listings:
By MIKE HUGHES
From his earliest moments, Placido
Domingo had music flowing into his ears.
“I remember both my mother and my
father singing me a lullaby before sleep,” he said. “The
harmonies … were so beautiful that it was hard for me to fall
asleep.”
These were pros, stars of zarzuela –
a Spanish musical theater, similar to operetta – in Madrid. His
first performance memories involve his parents onstage.
“I remember my father dressed in
tails,” Domingo said. “There is a song that says this gentleman
is a very elegant gentleman and he drives crazy the ladies.”
In his 70 years, Domingo has often been
the elegant man onstage. He has sung 131 operas, using his native
language (Spanish) plus Italian, French, German, Russian and English.
He's learned individual songs in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and more.
“I always like to learn a popular
song to please the people,” he said. “Probably, they don't
understand me too well, but in any case, I try.”
Lately, many of his roles have been on
PBS' “Great Performances.” He's done three in the past 20 months;
next is “Il Postino” (Nov. 25). Before that, there's a “My
Favorite Roles” special.
It was PBS that propelled a new wave,
two decades ago, with the popular “Three Tenors” concerts.
Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras were elevated to
pop-star fame.
That's fine with Domingo, who has
admired pop performers. He praises Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand,
Sting, Spain's pop stars and more. “The Beatles … were great,
great musicians.”
And in any performance, he said, his
classical technique is secondary. “I will give up technique for
feeling … It's important that that the public believes and feels.”
It's also important that he doesn't
take those feeling away from the stage. “You live a lot of tragedy,
constantly, on the stage,” Domingo said. But “you cannot let
yourself in the suffering.”
So he seems to live a non-operatic
life. A teen marriage ended quickly, but next August, he has his 50th
wedding anniversary with Marta Ornelas, a director and former
soprano.
“I love to be happy,” Domingo said,
“but I love to suffer onstage. On the stage it's wonderful, the
suffering. I also like the comedy, but I am better at the suffering.”
Domingo on PBS (check local listings)
– “Placido Domingo: My Favorite
Roles,” 9 p.m. Friday
– “Il Postino,” Nov. 25.
– Recent roles have been “Simon
Boccanegra” last year and two – “Rigoletto” and “Iphigenie
en Tauride” – this year; next year is “The Enchanted Island”