Interview with Plácido Domingo: ‘as long as the public come, and the theatre is sold out, I will be singing’

The Times went to Paris to talk to Plácido Domingo who is rehearsing at the Théâtre du Châtelet for the European premiere of an operatic version of Il Postino. Here are some excerpts:

On his baritone roles. Rigoletto:

I try not to have too much of a hump. Although they talk about him being deformed, I'm taller than most Rigolettos. It doesn't have to be exaggerated.”

Simon Boccanegra:

For British people I guess Boccanegra must be one of the closest operatic characters to King Lear. The love duet between a daughter that you have lost and then recover … that's one of the most beautiful plots.”

Singing the baritone repertory:

I know how to colour the voice, and I have substantial weight in the lower part, and the middle, for the big line, the legato cantabile. But I never pretend to be a baritone. I can't say if I'll ever be one properly!”

Playing fathers:

They give me a lot more satisfaction than the heroes and big lovers. OK, when you're a father and you have young children you're still close to those young parts, but then your children start to grow and you start to feel like a real father figure.”

On being a father and his first marriage:

It's a joke when you are a teenager and become a father. I had my second child when I was 25, and third when I was 28. And I think I was not even mature for the third one! I was building my career. I didn't know what it was to be a father.”

On his second wife of almost 50 years:

She's not only my wife, mother of my children and mother to my grandchildren, she's also an expert, and she advised me so much for the stage, for my career — advice that any of my colleagues would have liked to have received.”

On saving his voice:

When I was doing my career at full steam, you did a recording in the summer, especially in London, where you'd go to Walthamstow Town Hall and maybe two or three critics would come to talk a bit with you. Today you do a record and you have to sell the product! You do five, six interviews … you use your voice that much and it's going to harm you. So I'm studying, not really singing. And with more than 3,500 performances under my belt you can find very, very little the occasions when I sang two days in a row. I always compare it to a sport that I know in England is not very popular: baseball. In baseball every player plays every day — but the pitcher can only play every four days.”

On the Three Tenors and crossover:

Many things came after. After the Three Tenors came the Three Sopranos, then the Celtic Tenors, then the Three Finnish Basses. But it was great for everybody. I know there were many people who were purist about it, but I don't care, because I have given to the purists all my life. I have the right to enjoy it.”

“This is something that has always been. Opera singers like Gigli, Pons, Chaliapin, Melchior … you see all those people involved in what was crossover those days. You see Caruso singing Over There. If there was TV in those days, they would have sung on TV, and if there were pop singers in those days, they would have sung with them. If something is in accord with what is going on, you do it.”

On stopping:

I won't sing one more day than I should, but I won't sing one more day than I can. This is my love, this is my passion. And as long as the public come, and the theatre is sold out, I will be singing.”

Photo:  Plácido Domingo in the role of Chileanpoet Pablo Neruda in Il Postino

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.