The most awaited for event at the MET
Saturday, 6 February 2010 , 20.00

Which is the most awaited for event in the 2009-2010 opera season?

Most connoisseurs of the genre would choose Simon Boccanegra at the New York Metropolitan Opera House , which we will also hear live this Saturday.

But why? Why should another performance at the MET – namely of a production dating back to 1995, signed by Giancarlo del Monaco –trigger such interest?
Because it is Domingo’s Simon Boccanegra (photo); thus, the artist, who has recently turned sixty-nine, goes back to his beginnings, in 1959, when he was performing baritone airs for his auditions in Mexico City…

Has he become Domingo, the ‘baritone? Or is it that ‘the repertoire of a tenor does not suffice for the great Domingo – now an active conductor, director of two lyrical theatres, founding-president of an important international canto competition? Maybe everyone has been asking themselves the same question, but then again, wanted to listen to Domingo in the respective performance.
On the other hand, although he made his absolute debut in Berlin, in October, few had seen him, and too little had been written about him, which proves that Peter Gelb – general manager of the MET – knows how to launch an event better than anybody!
This is how Simon Boccanegra had been sold out at the MET, long before the beginning of the season, and on the evening of January 19th 2010, at the first performance on the programme, nearly forty representatives of the press around the world were present in the hall, together with 4000 spectators. However, the show was not broadcast either on radio, or in theatres; it will be broadcast now, on February 6th 2010. Nevertheless the event was apparently applauded and acclaimed for several minutes on end. It was the night of Placido Domingo’s third debut at the MET. He made his debut as tenor in 1968, replacing Corelli in "Adriana Lecouvreur", and then as conductor in 1984 with" La Bohème", and once again now in Verdi’s work, "Simon Boccanegra", in which he is performing for the first time as baritone.

‘What a show!’ exclaimed the New York audience on January 19th.
‘What a triumph!’ wrote most of the papers the following day. And what a phenomenon does Placido Domingo remain! The one whom we applauded as conductor last Saturday (January 30th 2010), and whom we will also hear as baritone this Saturday.
What energy, what mental force and what artistic commitment does this man possess!

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