Plácido Domingo: 1941—: Opera Singer, Conductor, Administrator Biography

Plácido Domingo: 1941—: Opera singer, conductor, administrator.

The Spanish-Mexican tenor Plácido Domingo is among the greatest all-around musicians of the last quarter of the twentieth century. With a voice matched only by a very few of his contemporaries, he has sung every major role in the classical operatic repertoire and quite a few more unusual roles. With fellow tenors José Carerras and Luciano Pavarotti he formed the Three Tenors, am ensemble that brought opera to pop fans and attracted the largest audience ever to hear a concert of classical music. Domingo, almost alone among opera singers, has also branched out into conducting and arts administration.

Domingo was born in the Spanish capital of Madrid on January 21, 1941. His parents were both performers in the Spanish musical theater genre called zarzuela, roughly comparable to operetta in the English-speaking world. The family toured Latin America with great success during Domingo's childhood; his mother Pepita became known as the Queen of Zarzuela, and by 1950 the family had settled in Mexico City and taken steps toward forming a zarzuela troupe there. Plácido took piano lessons, dreamed of a conducting career in high school, and performed in his parents' zarzuela productions; in the midst of a chorus that had a brief solo passage, his fellow choristers, having realized the power of his voice, shoved him forward to sing the solo.