Placido Domingo
This year’s program of the Arena di Verona announced a Verdi show with Placido Domingo as singer and a Turandot with the same artist as conductor. Both evenings have been called a flop by the Corriere della Sera. It is said that the singer repeatedly forgot his text and had several voice drops. At the end of the opera, the orchestra refused to stand when invited by Domingo. The musicians remained seated after what they considered a bad performance due to bad conducting by Domingo.
The Union speaks openly about « Embarrassing rehearsals. » The statement says: « The outcome of the evenings, given the embarrassing rehearsals, had been predicted and denounced by the choir artists, orchestra musicians and stage technicians, who had immediately realized that Domingo was not up to his reputation and the task entrusted to him by Fondazione Arena di Verona. (…) Confirming this, there was a protest from the orchestra who, aware of the mediocrity of the performance that had just ended, refused to stand up at the conductor’s customary sign inviting them to take their applause. Many members of the orchestra and chorus artists have no doubt that the performance on the 26th was one of the most humiliating evenings for the entire artistic sector. »
