This should be read in conjunction with the next post, The Alan Yentob and Franco Zefferelli Show
Last night BBC1 devoted an entire hour of programming to Plácido Domingo (my hero!). I found out several weeks ago that this was going to be on and of course I was looking forward to it.
By the time I got home yesterday, I wasn't feeling great and really just wanted to go to bed and sleep. But, heck, mere tiredness wasn't going to get in the way of watching my hero on TV. Recording it to watch at a later date wasn't an option!
As the evening progressed I got increasingly anxious. I've really got to do something about this. I have jokingly described before my 'audience nerves', but that applies to going to an opera house, having paid lots of money and committed time, effort etc. This was for a bloody TV programme. A certain amount of anxiety is justifiable - one never likes distortions and untruths, one never feels that the media are altogether trustworthy. But I was definitely suffering more than 'a certain amount'!
I did a few mindless chores round the house, then decided to occupy myself with Sudoku on my phone (I actually hate Sudoku and find it almost pointless; it sometimes serves to focus the mind!). I switched the TV on for the ten o'clock news and went back to my Sudoku. My concentration was shattered by this most gorgeous voice singing Vesti la giubba. I looked up - it was a trailer for the programme to follow after the news and came as a delightful surprise. Suddenly, all my anxiety dissipated into pleasurable anticipatory excitement.
I was utterly delighted to be wallowing in the wonderfulness of His Wonderfulness having a whole programme devoted to him. It was billed as following him as he prepared for the baritone role of Simon Boccanegra, and although this subject was touched on, the programme tried to be a retrospective of his career so far.
It included some archive footage of him on-stage, and also off-stage - with Pláci jr and Alvaro when they were toddlers or a little older, and some from the programme that was made in 1994 - he and his three sons singing Sin ti karaoke-style in Acapulco. There was also video footage of his parents in Luisa Fernando; a sound-only recording of him singing in Lucia with Lily Pons (which was her last Lucia, she had sung her first with Gigli).
Interspersed with the performance footage were snippets of comment from various people in the opera world, all full of praise for him - of course - and, best of all, interview footage with him. A particular highlight was him giving a detailed commentary on the subtleties involved in singing the 'Flower' aria from Carmen, and I did think that that is my idea of aural bliss: Plácido Domingo talking (so softly so gently) over the sound of Plácido Domingo singing.
I suppose my ultimate highlights were the clips from the ROH Otello, the Hamburg Lohengrin, and the Tosca (in the time and place), all of which I have on DVD anyway.
I felt he was fairly guarded in the interview, really quite serious. He was asked about the Mexico City earthquake and I felt that he found it difficult to talk about it, indeed would rather not have.
He said that he feels that one should, to the limit of one's ability, do what one can to help. That one sentence was the absolute essence of the man.
I know he has a healthy ego and is not unduly modest about his considerable ability, rightly. Crucially, though, he never comes across as egotistical, boastful or arrogant; and this sense of duty, obligation or service is a very attractive characteristic.
He was expansive in his answers to very few questions; the interviewer said to him that, of course, his father was also called Plácido; so he replied that he also has a son called Plácido and a grandson, just a year old, who is Plácido the fourth.
In terms of roles, and his career and so on, he seemed careful in what he said, although he seemed absolutely determined when he said that he had commitments up until 2014 when he will be 73. I have noticed before how he likes to give interviews at the piano, so that when he's talking about a piece of music, he plays it. I wonder if, subconsciously, it's a bit of a shield, too.
I felt that he was at his most expansive when talking specifically about music; I suspect he would have been even more careful in answering questions about the person behind the performer, the psychology, if you like, of someone who keeps going out on stage two or three times a week for fifty years, and continues to do so past the age when most people retire, and when he has no financial need to do so, let alone more personal questions.
I have only watched it the once and of course I shall watch it again. (I intend to put it onto DVD, but my DVD player is unlooped from the digibox-TV loop; I also intend to upload it to Rapidshare, so watch this space).I expect that at some point it will be available on YouTube.
