Placido Domingo: A Baritone on a Verdian Journey

Every industry has its icons, whose achievements take place across a multi-generational span of time. Such personalities are revered and trusted. Their careers turn in meaningful ways and are seen as enriching a vast legacy. In the world of opera, few living opera singers can compete with Placido Domingo for the status of such an icon, a singer of a global dimension with a household name, a place in history, and a voice that gets only more rewarding with age.

To write about the latest career turn of Placido Domingo is both naïve and important. It is naïve to imagine that in the age of Wikipedia and Youtube a text on a blog could be an adequate way to inform, demonstrate, and engage. This may especially be naive, since the subject of the text yields more than four million hits in search engines. It nevertheless is very important to inform about Placido Domingo, to demonstrate his art, and to enlarge his audience, especially in the age when self-proclaimed starlets and narcissistic mediocrity generate popular appraisal and replace artistry with celebrity.

Be it naïve or important, writing about Placido Domingo is a heart-felt pleasure. My first conscious recollection of the voice dates back to the early 90s and a recording of Verdi’s Aida, with its staple arias, duets, and choral ensembles. There it was, a strong ample clear voice, delivering top notes with deep resonance, embracing the orchestra with smooth phrasing, and reviving the audience with rhythmic lyrics. During many years of audio and video experiences I uncovered for myself his talents of a singer, performer, and conductor. When life finally offered an opportunity to see and hear Placido Domingo on stage, the rite of passage from an enthusiast to a fan was seamless. There it was, untroubled by the decades of intense schedules, the same strong ample clear voice embodied in a sincere, dignified, and generous person. And today, I am happy to continue witnessing his unbound energy and vitality coupled with the highest integrity and ambition to develop and to share.

As tenor as we may know Placido Domingo, there has always been, in my opinion, a baritonal quality to his voice. Several insights into Domingo’s recent roles only confirmed such thoughts. Besides, his grey looks invite naturally the thoughts of Othello, Rigoletto, Macbeth, and other mature characters. Yet I thought with sadness in 2010 that Domingo’s uptake of a baritonal role in Met’s production of Simon Boccanegra was a sign of an impending exit into retirement. I have rarely been so glad to be proven wrong. The step towards the baritonal singing was the beginning of a new career, with new roles piling up from one season to another.

Forward to September 2013, and I am looking with a slight disbelief at a new recording by Placido Domingo VERDI, his first recording of baritone arias.

The record has 18 tracks that include arias from Verdi’s eight operas. Here we have a Scottish baron with royal blood on his hands; a hunchback at a ducal court in Mantua fighting for his daughter; a betrayed Swedish aristocrat about to have his revenge; a heartless father in Paris who manages his children’s matrimonial plans; an ageing Doge in Genoa who faces a rebellion and collects pieces of his family; a Spanish king abusing his power to crush rivals in politics and in love; a Spanish count about to discover his Gypsy origins; a Spanish marquis obsessed with the idea of a revolution; and a Spanish nobleman whose fixation on revenge turns him against his sister and his best friend.

The above is an ambitious programme. Verdi’s baritone characters are psychologically complex and can equally require a beastly roar, sublime elegance, and tearful revelations. While Domingo’s stage experience as a tenor (more than hundred incarnations) suggests he can enact the roar, the serenity, and the tears, a demonstration of his vocal abilities via such a range of baritonal repertoire, stripped of visual clues, still makes a very brave career move. After all, the opera world has an army of excellent baritones, including Leo Nucci, Vladimir Chernov, Bryn Terfel, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, and Simon Keenlyside among others. Claiming a place in their rank by a tenor, albeit a very renowned one, could naturally raise few eyebrows and result in a sceptical dismissal.

With a most careful awareness of the above, I listened once to the recording on a standard CD-player at home and several times later on my iPod (equipped with the high-end headphones) during my commutes to Porvoo Campus (one-hour bus rides that are ideal for such a purpose). Here come my listening observations.

Domingo’s voice is ready for a baritone itinerary. He is definitely convincing as a lyrical baritone, with a strong high register and expressive at times soft delivery. Domingo is also a great example of what can be considered a Verdi baritone, a somewhat thicker voice that can easily resonate over the orchestra and deliver music rather intensely. When it comes to the dramatic side of the baritonal voice, Domingo’s voice occasionally lacks the depth and the heaviness that one would normally expect from such dark characters as, for instance, Macbeth and Rigoletto. Yet stretching the boundaries of his voice and singing with a strong reliance on linguistic meanings of the Italian lyrics can compensate such a lacking, at least for receptive audiences. My favourite tracks so far are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the very well-known arias that constitute some of the most beautiful opera music ever written: Rigoletto’s Cortigiani, vil razza dannata; Germon’s Di Provenza il mar, il suol; Conte di Luna’s Il balen del suo sorriso, and Rodrigo’s Io morro ma lieto in core. When listening to these arias, Domingo disappears, yielding place for the characters to come alive and for the mind to engage with the stories and with the power of Verdi’s music.

Placido Domingo’s baritone CD is a high-quality work, a great tribute both to Verdi’s heritage and to the singer’s own artistry. And as such, it is a success. A novice opera enthusiast will definitely take this recording as an invitation to explore Verdi’s operas further. A seasoned opera lover will probably treasure this yet another rendition of favourite pieces. A person unaccustomed to opera will perhaps grow kinder towards the genre.

To conclude the review, I would gladly recommend the CD as an insight into a new Verdian journey that Placido Domingo is undertaking at the moment as a baritone. I would also look forward to another recording by Placido Domingo and a chance to experience his baritonal singing live in an opera house or in a concert.