Plácido Domingo Continues to Break Records Despite Age

The tenor during a rehearsal break at the MET
(Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP)

"Domingo is a conductor as well as an artist who has a record-setting 134 career roles; the celebrated tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Enrico Caruso performed far less -- Caruso about 60 roles, Pavarotti fewer than that. Domingo is booked through 2015 and still adding roles at an age when most top-notch singers retire from the stage. He regularly sells out theaters including the Met's 3,800-seat auditorium. 'Very few singers can sing at all at the age of 70 -- he sounds great; it's absolutely extraordinary,' says James Conlon, music director of the Los Angeles Opera....Domingo acknowledges that he's no longer comfortable with the highest tenor notes, and in recent years has taken on parts that show off his rich, vibrant middle and lower registers. Among them is Orestes in Iphigenie [en Tauride]....Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and Rigoletto. And he's polishing the part of Athanael in Thais, by Jules Massenet, to mark the centennial of the French composer's death next year." [Source]