Plácido Domingo

More than 150 stage roles stand to his name, sung in six languages, first as a tenor and, from 2009, in baritone parts led by Simon Boccanegra. Born in Madrid in 1941 and brought up in Mexico, he trained at the National Conservatory there, worked in zarzuela and opera side by side, and made his first leading-role debut in 1961 as Alfredo in La traviata at Monterrey. Otello became the part most closely identified with him, alongside Cavaradossi, Don José, Des Grieux, Canio and Siegmund; his discography passes two hundred recordings and covers most of the central tenor repertoire, several titles more than once. He began conducting in 1973, with La traviata at New York City Opera, and has since led opera and symphonic programmes in the houses where he sang. In 1993 he founded Operalia, the international competition through which a large part of the following generation of singers came. He was artistic director and then general director of Washington National Opera from 1996 until 2011, and held the corresponding posts at Los Angeles Opera from 2000 to 2019.