Plácido Domingo sparkles the lineup of the NCPA opera Thaïs

NCPA January/30/2018
The NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) opera Thaïs will premiere on February 2nd-6th. Plácido Domingo, starring Athanaёl, arrived in Beijing before dawn on January 27th. In spite of weariness, the maestro, in his seventies, made his way to the NCPA in the afternoon and joined the rehearsal. On January 29th, the NCPA held a press conference to announce his arrival, at which Domingo talked to reporters about how he understood the opera Thaïs and how he felt about performing it in the NCPA production.

Maestro Plácido Domingo meets with the media at the NCPA

Maestro Domingo forged a strong bond with the NCPA in 2012, when the 20th Plácido Domingo's Operalia: The World Opera Competition was held here. In 2013, he played the title role in the NCPA opera Nabucco, showing Chinese audiences his virtuosic style on the opera stage for the first time. He also sung in NCPA operas Simon Boccanegra and Macbeth, when he rendered the classic characters in Verdi’s operas to life in front of Chinese audiences, who showed great admiration for his sublime artistic postures.

NCPA opera Thaïs will its debut on February 2nd-6th

Thaïs, a classic opera by French composer Massenet, was one of the most popular operas, but it was later gradually left “out in the cold” in the middle 20th century. In the past few years, the opera has revived with maestro Domingo, Renée Fleming and other singers performing it, in many well-known opera houses. In 2008, Thaïs was performed for a second time in the Metropolitan Opera, where it was staged for the first time since 32 years ago, and Domingo, who was not a baritone yet at that time, expressed his partiality for the opera and felt much pity not to get involved in the production since the leading actor must be a baritone. In 2014, Domingo, who was already a baritone by then, played Athanaёl in Thaïs in the Los Angeles Opera, making this operatic role the 139th one in his stage list. Later, he joined the production of Thaïs at the Salzburger Festspiele and Liceu Theatre, Barcelona.


Maestro Domingo in his dress rehearsal

This time, Domingo will work with French conductor Patrick Fournillier again to perform in this opera. Domingo and Patrick Fournillier started their cooperation of Thaïs in 2014. Acclaimed soprano Ermonela Jaho, who will play Thais, has also cooperated with master Domingo, but it will be the first time they sing Thais together. Soprano Davinia Rodriguez, who will also play Thais, has cooperated with master Domingo as well.

Maestro Domingo (as Athanaёl) and Ermonela Jaho (as Thaïs)

Domingo cares much about his cooperation with the NCPA every time when he performs here. Of the Chinese singers to perform in the opera, tenor LI Yi, who will play Nicias, joined Domingo Younger Artist Programme in 2013 at Domingo’s invitation, and studied there under Domingo; tenor ZHANG Wenwei, who will sing Palémon, won the third prize in the Plácido Domingo's Operalia: The World Opera Competition in 2009. Besides, other excellent Chinese young singers, including JIA Kun, DONG Fang, DUAN Nina, HONG Zhiguang and ZHANG Wenqin, will perform in the classic opera on stage with the maestro.
Maestro Domingo answers the questions from his fans

At the end of the press conference, maestro Domingo answered the questions raised by his fans from the Facebook account of the NCPA. Talking about the most challenging part of Athanaël, the maestro said,"Of course the part of Athanaël is very challenging. It’s very long, as I said before. Very subtle of course to both for Thaïs and for Athanaël. It is once they meet in a kind of a continuous, continuous duet. This one is a great challenge. This is what I thought."

When answering whether he would shave during holidays, the maestro gave his answers,"I shave my beard very very rarely. Actually before the holidays, I shaved it. Because I always sung with beard, I relaxed some days. But since then, I was growing it by for Athanaël, because I guess those days in the desert, it was very difficult to shave. So yes I did that also with beard. "

Photos by LING Feng & XIAO Yi
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