Domingomania

Placido Domingo and Anna Netrebko have been busily bigging each other up in advance of tonight's Trovatore.

She's as good as Callas, he rashly proclaims.

She in her turn recalls seeing him in Otello at the Mariinsky in the '80s. "After the show, I'll never forget hundreds of people storming the stage! Past all the guards! And Placido stood there, barefoot, in a nightshirt - the closing scene of Otello takes place in Desdemona's bedroom - and calmly signed autographs. It was horrendously cold, it went on forever, but he had a look and a word for everyone. Phenomenal."

Comments

[Frau ohne Schatten]

I don’t know if he’s right saying that Netrebko is like Callas, but actually Anna is right about him. I remeber that in June at the Wiener Staatsoper after the first “Romeo et Juliette”(that Domingo was conducting) a big noise and screams by the stage door when Domingo came out very big crowd basically run on to him and surrounded him, people where getting closer and closer living him no space, and it was like they were going to push him back inside. And I remember hearing the voice of Dominique Meyer saying in raised voice: “Ruhe” to the most pushy ones. This did not help actually. Yet Domingo stood there patient and with lots of tolerance, smiles, good words and signed autographs for at least 40 minutes or even more. There is something like “Domingomania” but he is used to it and what’s more important he has patience and good will.