Placido Domingo

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 10:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1980, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:29

On our desert island this week is the operatic tenor Placido Domingo.

Presenter0:35

Now the reference books say you were born in Madrid. Were you one of a large family? No, only two.

Placido Domingo0:40

My sister and my s So

Presenter0:42

Yes. And both your parents were singers.

Placido Domingo0:44

Yes, both they have been very well known singers on uh Spanish music, which we call tartuela.

Presenter0:52

Uh

Placido Domingo0:52

Operettas. Well, it's not exactly operetta, it's tartuela. That's all I can tell you. It's a music that is really beautiful, charming, dramatic at moments. And it never gets so complicated as tragic as it could be an opera, because most of them they have a happy ending. But nevertheless, there are some kind of dramas and intrigues and jealousy in the different regions of Spain. And it's really wonderful, wonderful music, and they were very much involved in it.

Speaker 10:57

I can tell you

Presenter1:27

Well, let's have your first record, and that indeed is going to be a bit of Zazuela.

Placido Domingo1:32

Well, yes, because that was the first music I hear it in my life. I listen a lot to my parents in the theater. And one of the beautiful works I hear is is a trilogy of three little sarzuelas, which they are called La Revoltosa.

Placido Domingo1:48

La Verbena de la Paloma, Yagua Sucarillo, Yeguardiente. There are three very classic, very small works and La Reboltosa, it really happens exactly in Madrid, and it has a most beautiful prelude.

Placido Domingo2:02

with um incredible the

Placido Domingo2:05

Feeling and spontaneity is a very simple work, but it has the really atmosphere of Madrid, and is for by one of our great, great composers, not only Esarcella, but he wrote very important works, Ruperto

Presenter3:21

Part of the prelude to La Revoltosa. Did you travel about with your parents sometimes?

Placido Domingo3:27

When you were a child? Hardly because they were very much traveling and it was not very easy. But nevertheless, I was able to travel some time with them and to enjoy their performances.

Presenter3:39

When you were quite young, they decided to go to Mexico. Yes. How old were you then?

Placido Domingo3:44

I was eight years old.

Presenter3:45

Almost nine.

Placido Domingo3:45

I almost

Placido Domingo3:48

Yes. And my parents, they enjoy so much Mexico and they decide

Placido Domingo3:53

Not to go back to Spain, but to stay a little longer in Mexico, and then a little longer it has been all the life. They do settle down quickly and

Presenter4:01

In Mexico, did you find it easier to to make it your home?

Placido Domingo4:05

Well, it was not difficult because first of all I don't have the handicap of the language. The language was the same and I kind of enjoyed very much the school I was in it. I used to play a lot of uh football, which I love it. It's one of my favorite sports. So I was very, very happy because I I enjoy it. And you did some uh

Placido Domingo4:26

Amateur bullfighting too as a boy. Also, yes. I think in the soul of every Spaniard, when you are very young, you want to be either a football player or a bull fighter.

Presenter4:36

Yes. Your parents decided to form their own company in in Mexico. Right. Six. Blip?

Placido Domingo4:42

Yes, very successfully so successfully the company was working until now.

Presenter4:49

You know

Presenter4:50

Now, you studied music. I believe you learned the piano and harmony, but but not singing. No, no singing.

Presenter4:56

You didn't have ambitions that way.

Placido Domingo4:58

Well, I have certain ambitions, but uh after I was pushed by some of the colleagues of my parents to say, Placido, you can sing, go to the stage and so one day I decide I I could do it, you know.

Presenter5:11

Had you ever had any singing lessons?

Placido Domingo5:13

Yes, I had. You had. But very little. I was no serious, you know, just to have a little bit of trying here and there. But I haven't had really proper teachers.

Presenter5:25

In the repertoire were some musical comedies, American musical comedies, I believe. My Fair Lady, and that too.

Placido Domingo5:30

Myself.

Placido Domingo5:31

Yes, I was singing My Fair Lady Brigadoon, The Red Hat. Yes, all musical comedies.

Presenter5:37

You had already played the piano in a nightclub as a as part of your early activities.

Placido Domingo5:41

Yes, I you name it. You know, in the music I I did everything almost.

Presenter5:48

And when did you make your debut in opera?

Placido Domingo5:51

My first important role, it was in sixty one, Alfredo in Traviata. Yes, how did that come about? Well, I was doing a lot of m as I tell you, musical comedy and so on, and Mexico they were forming a national season of opera, and I I have a very dear friend which passed away three years ago, which told me Placido, I think you can sing opera and I think you should concentrate on doing opera. And uh finally I decide, Why not? Let's try it. So I auditioned and so I was engaged.

Presenter6:26

Right. Well, there, you've made your debut. Let's have your second record. What shall we have now?

Placido Domingo6:27

Okay.

Placido Domingo6:31

Well, I cannot avoid to play something that is very, very dear to me because of being my first experience of listening to the greatest of all times, which is without any doubt for me Caruso. And uh he was certainly an inspiration. He was certainly the teacher of teachers. Listen to his records has been what has teached me more about vocal technique, about feeling, about legato, you name it. And I have chosen one area which was one of the very last he recorded, La Jouive.

Placido Domingo7:14

I think it's one of the most moving arias that he ever recorded.

Speaker 37:37

Jove of the Earth and Wiro Jove

Speaker 38:15

Look at the road.

Presenter8:21

Enrico Caruso singing an aria from the last act of Alevis La Jouive.

Presenter8:27

The great tenor Caruso. You of course began as a baritone, didn't you?

Placido Domingo8:32

Yes. Again going back to the Sarzuela, I should say that the baritone in the Sarzuela is the let's put it away is a short tenor. The decitues that are very high. Yes. So I was really a false baritone. I was just a baritone, a comfortable baritone, let's say it, in his way to be a tenor. But since I was singing some of the my parents' Sarzuelas, I passed like a baritone, but I was

Presenter8:57

But I was never really a baritone.

Placido Domingo9:03

The Romantic is

Presenter9:04

I was

Placido Domingo9:04

To look at.

Presenter9:04

Yeah.

Presenter9:05

Did you find that um any anything of of of a problem changing your voice?

Placido Domingo9:10

No, because, as I told you, it was just a matter of being not yet ready. I was very young when I was singing Byton with my parents. I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, you know.

Speaker 19:21

Nino

Placido Domingo9:21

So I wasn't really completely

Placido Domingo9:24

ready, so I just have to bring my decision up and really try to be a tenor.

Presenter9:30

You made some of your earlier operatic appearances i i in the United States, but you had a long spell with the Israel National Opera. How did that come?

Placido Domingo9:38

But how did that come about?

Placido Domingo9:40

Well, in nineteen sixty two.

Placido Domingo9:43

I was just married with my wife, Marta, which also used to sing. And uh a friend of ours, Jose Kahn, a pianist, just came from Israel and he said, Placido, Marta, you know, they are looking for a soprano and a tenor in the Israel opera. And it sounds so exciting to us, that why don't you go? So we sent a tape of our performance, our voice, audition, and they engage us. So we were initially for six months under contract and those six months became two and a half years.

Presenter10:17

What happened when you left Israel?

Placido Domingo10:19

When I left Israel I uh went through Europe doing some auditions and uh with a contract already to sing in the United States in small companies in Chautauqua and in New New York and in Washington DC in an opera season they have.

Placido Domingo10:38

And being there I auditioned for the City Opera.

Presenter10:41

Yeah.

Placido Domingo10:41

And the City Opera, of course, was a great beginning for me because when the City Opera moved from the old City Center to the Lincoln Center, it was the opening of the Lincoln Center in February sixty six and I sang the Don Rodrigo Beginas there.

Presenter10:59

Now, you're you're a big man. The story goes that in Traviata one night you lifted the dying Violetta and cradled her in your arms while you sang. Now that's an extraordinary physical feat. Did you do it every night during the run?

Placido Domingo11:12

Well, I did it every night during the wrong. I don't do it every time I sing because it depends very much on the violetta. Because this violetta was quite light, but I will never attend with some other ones, you know. It's uh it's just matter of impossible, huh? Yes, yes.

Presenter11:27

You asked the management to give me a light via letter, and I will show you something. Yes.

Placido Domingo11:31

He is Honey, it was pure accident, you know, because in the rehearsal I was supposed to before Parigio Cara, I I was supposed to to take her on my in my arms and then bring her to the sofa.

Placido Domingo11:43

But we were musically late, and I started to sing Parijok. The stage director said, Hold it, hold it, said

Placido Domingo11:55

You think you can do it? What do you mean you can do it? Can you sing with her in your arms the whole time? Said, God, I mean, let's try it, you know? So we try it and it works. She said, Let me do it every day and by the time we are having the premiere, let's see how I feel. So it worked out.

Presenter12:12

He went on the training for exactly.

Placido Domingo12:13

Yeah.

Presenter12:14

What's your third record?

Placido Domingo12:16

Well, I shouldn't deprive myself of listening to some opera intermezzi.

Placido Domingo12:22

Because there it will be different things, you know. But going into the whole list of intermezzi, I find the one that is close to me, which is the intermezzo of Maron Lesco, is really the sadness, the desperation of the Grie, you hear it in the whole intermezzo, in the voice of the viola, in the celli, the desperation, in the crescendo, and then the stillness of the pianissimo. This is a record conducted by Herbert von Carayan.

Presenter13:50

The intomezzo from Puccini's Manon Lesco

Presenter13:53

Carrigan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter13:57

Now we talked about your first appearances at the New York City Opera. Your debut at the Metropolitan was rather a hectic one, wasn't it?

Placido Domingo14:06

So

Placido Domingo14:07

To say then

Presenter14:07

Yes, they tell me about it.

Placido Domingo14:09

I was engaged just recently by the Metropolitan'cause I was singing still at the City Opera. So I was in both houses.

Placido Domingo14:17

and I was rehearsing at the Metropolitan Tour and D'Or the whole afternoon of Saturday.

Placido Domingo14:23

And that evening it was the last performance of Adriana Le Couveret before my actual performance was the twenty eighth of September in sixty eight and my performance was supposed to be the second of October. So I just went back

Placido Domingo14:38

to my house and I was having dinner and shaving.

Placido Domingo14:43

you know, very relaxed to go to the performance to see it, because that was my last chance to see it. It was with Tevali.

Presenter14:49

Yes.

Placido Domingo14:49

When Mr Bing called me at the telephone and he said, Placido, I'm very sorry, I said, but you have to rush to the metropolitan I said, but what do you mean? Well, you are going to make your metropolitan debut this evening.

Presenter14:49

When Miss

Placido Domingo15:01

I said, mister Bing, that's impossible. I said, well, Franco Corelli cannot sing, and you have to come.

Placido Domingo15:08

said, well, I I rush, you know, and it was very very peculiar because in the car I was driving with my father, my mother wasn't able to come and my wife was expecting my little boy Alvaro, which was born a few days later. So my wife and my mother, they were not able to be at my metropolitan debut, so my father came with me. That was the most upsetting thing for me, you know. I was thinking the whole time, I said, such a day for me, and they cannot be with me, you know, that's terrible. And they delayed the performance and starts at 8.20. It was um something quite unusual. And we started, and that was my debut.

Presenter15:46

Now you were singing um Maurizio in Adriana Le Couvoir.

Placido Domingo15:49

Adriana Le Couvois.

Presenter15:50

Uh

Placido Domingo15:50

When had you Last song there Yeah.

Presenter15:51

Yeah.

Placido Domingo15:51

By chance it was one of my early parts, I have sung one performance of that opera in Mexico in'sixty-two.

Presenter15:57

In six.

Placido Domingo15:58

Just shortly after I star.

Presenter16:01

And you hadn't sung it since? No. You had never seen had you ever seen the Metropolitan Production?

Placido Domingo16:05

Yes, because I was already rehearsing the opera, yes.

Presenter16:08

Yeah.

Presenter16:10

This sounds a very nerve-wracking business, yours.

Placido Domingo16:12

Absolutely. But I think in in a way it was very convenient for me. I make two debuts, you know.

Placido Domingo16:17

That one and four days later, yeah.

Presenter16:20

Well, you had no chance to worry about it, did you? No, no.

Placido Domingo16:21

Did you now know? No chance.

Presenter16:23

Another record, please.

Placido Domingo16:25

When I will be lying in this beautiful I hope it's beautiful island because if it's beautiful island, you know, if it's desert at least it should be beautiful, you know. And I was thinking that the most beautiful sound is the sound of the birds in an island. Should be something really beautiful, s very musical. But I thought something related with it. And there is a beautiful piece which is absolutely one of my favorite favorite items of music. It's the exactly called the Song of the Birds. And it's something the great cellist, Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, plays like New Buddha. It's a Catalan song, and he decides

Presenter16:29

Yeah

Placido Domingo17:11

To finish all his concerts with it, you hear the sadness and you can hear the sadness of a man.

Placido Domingo17:19

in exile, out of Spain how many years he was and I think that if I will be in an island I will be very nostalgic, and this will be something definitely I would love to hear it.

Presenter18:35

Pablo Casals and his arrangement of The Song of the Birds. Placido, would you agree that you're equally at home in in lyric roles and dramatic roles?

Placido Domingo18:44

Yes, I do. I I I think it's part of my

Presenter18:50

Do you have

Placido Domingo18:50

Very, very big repertoire. Yes, and I like to shuffle my my roles, you know? Mhm. I like to go from lyric to dramatic, uh, not to stay too much in the dramatic, then to go back to the lyric, to do something light. You know, I like it really to change the repertoire. I think it must be very boring when the people is asking you to sing always the same role.

Presenter19:10

How many operas are in Europe?

Placido Domingo19:12

But what have you ever counted? Eighty. Over eighty. And uh I suppose about

Presenter19:12

Counted.

Presenter19:14

Eighty.

Placido Domingo19:18

Twenty five they are regularly in repertoire. Are you a quick study? Can you learn a a new role fairly quickly? Oh, yes, if it's something that interests me.

Presenter19:21

Are you a

Placido Domingo19:27

I can really learn it quickly.

Presenter19:29

How do you memorize? Do you visualize the page of the music?

Placido Domingo19:32

Sometimes, yes, sometimes. I sit down at the piano, I study, I play the part in the piano, and little by little, by playing it and playing it and playing it, I realize all of a sudden

Placido Domingo19:43

Then I know the piece.

Presenter19:44

Which do you look on as the most challenging role in your repertoire? Otello?

Placido Domingo19:48

The the most challenging so far is the Tello, yes.

Presenter19:50

How many times have you sung that?

Placido Domingo19:52

I have sang over sixty performances now. Have you? Yes.

Presenter19:56

Another record, what next?

Placido Domingo19:59

In sixty nine.

Placido Domingo20:01

One of my

Placido Domingo20:03

Thrilling moments of my career. I was making my debut in Italy.

Placido Domingo20:08

But it was not only Italy, it was in Verona.

Placido Domingo20:11

which twenty five thousand people were there. It was not only Verona, which was my first calaf. It was my first calaf and the turandotte was Birgid Nilsson. So I can tell you then that performance is I can never forgot because to hear this incredible voice with the easiest, with the incredible top

Placido Domingo20:35

Dambirgit has it in Verona.

Placido Domingo20:38

I cannot repeat that impression, unfortunately, ever. It's in my head.

Placido Domingo20:44

Anything that it will be on a record, it won't be.

Placido Domingo20:48

As close of what that was, because it was something.

Placido Domingo20:52

that I cannot describe, but nevertheless I go very often in to hear it again on the record.

Speaker 321:00

She behaves.

Speaker 321:07

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter21:49

Jergit Nielsen Inquestor Reggia from Turin.

Presenter21:53

You must hold the record for the for the number of operatic recordings. Once again, have you have you counted?

Placido Domingo21:58

I stopped counting it a little bit back. I will one day because I have written down, but I think I have passed already fifty complete recordings.

Presenter22:05

And and some operas you've recorded twice now.

Placido Domingo22:07

Son of them, yes, I have recorded two times Aida.

Placido Domingo22:11

Two times um

Placido Domingo22:13

Carmen two times Iltabarro.

Placido Domingo22:18

Two times Ballo now.

Presenter22:19

Yeah.

Placido Domingo22:20

Two times Tosca and three times the Vaddy Requiem.

Presenter22:23

You haven't chosen any of your own records for the island.

Placido Domingo22:25

Yeah.

Placido Domingo22:26

No, because I don't think he's right.

Presenter22:29

Well, let's have whatever you're going to choose next, and what is it?

Placido Domingo22:32

Well, I have something then, as you know by now, is my favorite opera, which is Othello. I consider the Othello of Othellos is the one that is conducted by Toscanini.

Placido Domingo22:46

You hear the beginning.

Placido Domingo22:48

the tempest, how you call it? The storm. The storm. The storm at its full capacity without any of the advantage of the stereo sound and the driving

Placido Domingo23:00

of the opening

Placido Domingo23:02

two or three minutes of the work that are incredible. The whole record is outstanding and the interpreters are fantastic with Vinay and so on. But the conducting of Toscanini, I think, is absolutely one of my favorite items.

Speaker 323:39

The very bottom.

Speaker 323:54

Bon la pole, con la suena!

Speaker 323:57

Open the screen up!

Speaker 324:09

What is it?

Presenter24:16

Attoro Toscanini conducting the opening of Verdi's Otello, a recording made in New York in nineteen forty seven.

Presenter24:25

Now in recent years conducting is a very important part in your life.

Presenter24:29

Yes.

Placido Domingo24:30

Thank you very much.

Placido Domingo24:34

I think so. I I think I am able to do it. I think I'm

Placido Domingo24:39

preparing myself into doing it. And so far the chances I have had

Placido Domingo24:45

They have been always so far with a very good results, and um I have been encouraged by it, everybody.

Presenter24:52

But you're you're you're not going to stop singing for the

Placido Domingo24:55

No, no, no, I ought to sing now and one day I will dedicate myself into full steam conducting.

Presenter25:02

Record number six, I think it is, or is it seven?

Placido Domingo25:05

I think it's seven, seven, yes.

Placido Domingo25:07

Well, I have two colossals of the music, well, contemporari and uh one of our contemporaries is already belong to the past because he is endurable, thanks God, and because he has been one of the most exciting conductors, especially in Beethoven and Strauss, which is Carl Bohm. And I have choice his collaboration with one of our greatest pianists of our generation, which is Maurizio Pollini. And uh I think that it was just not a coincidence that it's also Beethoven which united them and in particular I like the ending of the first movement of the piano concerto, number three.

Presenter26:50

The closing of the first movement of Beethoven's third piano concerto,

Presenter26:54

The Viana Philharmonic Orchestra with Maurizio Polini as soloist and Carl Berm conducting.

Presenter27:01

Where is your home? Where is your

Placido Domingo27:03

It has been Barcelona until a few months ago. At the moment it's been New York. It's a try. We are trying. Because I'm trying to live in a place that I spend the longest time. So, in order to be with my children more time.

Presenter27:13

Yes.

Presenter27:16

You have three sons. I have three sons, yes. Are they interested in music?

Placido Domingo27:20

Yes, the three they are very, very musical. I have a big son, which is twenty two, Joe, which lives in England. And then I have uh Placido,

Placido Domingo27:30

of Plasi and Alvaro, which there are fifteen and twelve, and they all love music. Pepe or Joe is more inclined to photography, he's very good in it, and uh Plasi and Alvaro,

Placido Domingo27:43

They are studying piano and cello and obway and let's see, you know, I don't push them at all. Whatever they will do it will be right, you know. So, let's see.

Presenter27:48

What

Speaker 327:48

Uh

Presenter27:48

Never they will

Speaker 127:49

Uh

Presenter27:52

You're on this desert island placido. Are you

Presenter27:56

Good at looking after yourself.

Placido Domingo27:58

Well, I think then the instinct it is there, you know.

Placido Domingo28:03

I will develop abilities that I am not even I'd never dream about, but I I think that I will

Placido Domingo28:09

I will try myself, certainly, to chop some trees down, you know, to try to build a boat that I can go a away, you know, after a while.

Presenter28:18

You have no tools, you have to improvise everything.

Presenter28:23

Do you like the open air life? Do you love it?

Placido Domingo28:25

Yes, I love it. I love it.

Presenter28:26

Are you a good swimmer?

Presenter28:28

Um fairly good. Do you know about small boats?

Placido Domingo28:31

Well, they are dangerous, yeah.

Presenter28:32

They're dangerous who know that much. Would you try to make a raft and and and escape?

Placido Domingo28:33

Seriously, you know that much.

Placido Domingo28:41

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, because I mean, I I cannot even if music is my life, I cannot live only with eight records and without seeing anybody else, you know.

Presenter28:51

I see your point. Your last record now. What's that?

Placido Domingo28:55

Well, it's also Beethoven. And this is a record I hear very often with my wife. And this is one of our really favorite conductors also, Carlos Cliver. I think his view of music is still extraordinary. And I think his Beethoven fifth symphony is incredible, is outstanding. And this third

Placido Domingo29:25

They come constantly in the first movement. They are never the same. They are never the same. You hear it with all the desperation.

Speaker 329:28

Yeah.

Placido Domingo29:32

You hear it with all the driving in certain moments, with the quietness, with the you hear always something different.

Placido Domingo29:40

And um I think it's just magical the way he does it.

Presenter30:31

The opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kleibe.

Presenter30:38

If you could take only one disc out of the eight you've chosen, Placido, which would it be?

Placido Domingo30:43

Well, I have been thinking a lot and uh after doing some elimination I have arrived to the conclusion of two.

Placido Domingo30:52

De Othello with Toscanini

Speaker 330:54

Hmm.

Placido Domingo30:54

and the Cliber fifth. But since I know that it has to be one,

Placido Domingo31:00

I think I feel inclined to the Othello with Toscanini because simply there is the vocal part of it also which I cannot live without.

Presenter31:11

Right. And you're allowed to take one luxury to the island, anything of no practical use that you would love to have.

Placido Domingo31:18

Well, I am going to ask you something now, because I have been very puzzled always about this luxury item.

Placido Domingo31:26

How are we going to have him? Providing, I mean, first of all, I must have a record player there, yes.

Presenter31:30

Oh, that's there, yes.

Placido Domingo31:31

So how about

Presenter31:33

Always

Placido Domingo31:34

See

Presenter31:34

Solar power, the sun.

Placido Domingo31:37

Oh, I see, Sonba. Well, then in that case I will have to sneak there, you know, a video cassette with all my performances. Then it could be worked by batteries also.

Presenter31:49

By the sun batteries.

Placido Domingo31:49

On batteries.

Placido Domingo31:51

Yes, a video player with the performances that I have been doing because it will keep me in the music also.

Presenter31:57

Well, I think we'll probably have to narrow it down to just a few of your performances, but we'll discuss that later.

Placido Domingo32:02

Yeah.

Presenter32:04

And one book. You've already got the Bible and Shakespeare there.

Placido Domingo32:07

I have decided also that my Spanish come to life in that moment, and I think then one of the most beautiful and really moving works of our literature is Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cervantes Don Quixote. I guess any Spaniard will pick so I don't want to be the exception.

Speaker 132:24

Cervantes

Speaker 132:25

Right.

Presenter32:30

Don Quixote, or Don Quixote, as we English call it, and you shall have it in as many languages as you like. And thank you, Placeo Do Domingo, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Placido Domingo32:41

Thank you very much. I enjoy it tremendously.

Presenter32:43

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 132:51

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.