Asking time of Placido Domingo is easier than one might expect. He willingly answered my questions while he was in Buenos Aires singing a run of Fedora at the Teatro Colón. His answers were a combination of passion and practicality, and his superstar status never got in the way of making you feel that this interview was an important thing to do. Domingo’s work with young singers is almost legendary, and his candid advice proves why so many emerging artists look to him for help.
How do you balance work and family while pursuing or maintaining a career? Is it possible to have both?
Combining a family life with a career can present its problems, especially when the singer in the marriage is the woman. It’s easier for a male singer, especially when his wife is a staunch supporter of his artistry and achievements. However, time and again there have been examples where a husband finds it difficult to deal with the success of his prima donna wife. Often, with the constant traveling required in an international career, the husband stays behind to take care of the home and the children and, in doing so, tends to feel inferior and even begins to neglect his own profession. Of course, there have been extraordinary examples to the contrary, where the husband has recognized that the wife has the bigger talent of the two and supports her career. That’s where the husband not only shows great love but great wisdom–and because of it is a stronger person.
What is the next best step for young singers once they complete their formal education?
I might suggest seeking the advice of certain established singers, provided the young singer is convinced that his or her basic talent and training is of sufficient importance to warrant taking up the time of a busy artist. I certainly also recommend a training program in connection with one of the big opera companies like the Metropolitan, the Lyric in Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, or the Houston Grand Opera. The people who run these programs dedicate themselves to finding important new talent.
I believe that if a person has real talent, the chance for a career is good. Some will make it big, some will make a normal career, and others, despite a beautiful voice, will not have a career. This is the unfortunate enigma of our profession.
Anyone who goes to college to study law, medicine, or any other discipline will more or less be assured of finding a job and earning a living. There are millions of doctors and lawyers in the world, and finding a job and career is not so difficult. On the other hand, a voice student who gets a diploma–even one with top grades and special citations–does not have any guarantee that he’ll make it. This is one of the cruel but irrefutable aspects of the singing profession. A big factor certainly is luck. For example, a really fantastic conservatory student may not have a real career, while someone who was overlooked by institutions is the one who makes it to the top. No one should enter the singing profession thinking, “I’m going to study voice, and my studies owe me a living.”
In pursuing a career, the goodwill of conductors and directors is certainly another important factor. My advice is to be flexible and let yourself be “molded,” especially by a conductor. Conductors are the ones who are important for re-engagements and for making recordings–at least at the beginning of a singer’s career.
How does one choose their repertoire? How do you know when it’s a good time to move into different things?
It is a difficult thing to advise people correctly. Not only must the advice be based on a fairly vast knowledge of repertoire but also on the characteristics of the person one advises, the temperament, the intelligence, and so on. Often people speak in general terms and say something like “Mozart is so good for the voice.” The truth is that you may ruin a person’s voice by recommending Mozart.
Speaking on a personal level, my voice has certain characteristics that presented problems to me during the early course of my career, mainly because my initial training was as a baritone when it should have been as a tenor from the very start. Therefore, I had to work on my range almost like a bricklayer, building note on top of note to get the extended tenor tessitura. This made me doubly aware of technique as I fought to be a tenor. The techniques I found beneficial may not be good for someone else because of the characteristics of my voice and their own.
If you are a singer with talents to offer but are still solving problems (technique, language, stage skills, repertoire, etc.), would you continue pursuing a career, or stop to fix the problems first? Where should one go to perfect the craft and still work in the business? Should one work at all?
Everyone has different problems, and they have to be detected–by a teacher, a coach, and eventually by a conductor. They have to be faced and discussed openly. Sometimes teachers or coaches keep singers from addressing certain problems–either they don’t know there is a problem or if they do, they don’t know how to fix it. Even if the verdict is negative, one has to be truthful with a young singer if one is asked for an opinion. Don’t forget that diction, stage deportment, and technique can all be improved by good advice and guidance. The only thing that cannot be improved is the basic instrument. Does the instrument have qualities that the public will like? Some voices are extraordinary, some are beautiful, some are interesting. It’s a strange thing because sometimes “beautiful” and “interesting” don’t always go together. Some singers with voices that aren’t particularly beautiful can make a career with an “interesting sound” in certain repertoire.
It’s important to know what is best for you to offer and to be honest with yourself about your abilities. In the majority of cases, you cannot fool your auditioner or the public.
What are the most important qualities a singer should have in today’s music world, in order of importance?
Before engaging a young singer, the first thing I want to discover is personality. I look for the energy of that artist and try to detect whether he or she has that mysterious quality of “making it on the stage.” If I can see the fire and individuality in that singer, then the next thing is still the voice. The voice has to be there or it is impossible to have a career.
The other important things, especially in today’s world, are musicality and physical appearance. Singers that are unmusical are a torture for me. A singer has to have more than just a beautiful sound. It is so difficult when a singer is not a good musician because it is hard on the colleagues, hard on the conductor, and, of course, the audience.
The music world is often crazy and unfair. What do you do to survive the insanity when it starts to get you down?
I think you have to have a great deal of self-control, no matter what. If somebody doesn’t want you, there’s nothing you can do about it–you must tell yourself that tomorrow will be another day, and you don’t know what could happen. When you feel yourself getting upset or depressed, the best thing to do is to try and concentrate on something other than the immediate problem of the career.
A certain amount of stoicism is necessary for this business. I know of certain very successful singers who, in the beginning of their career, auditioned countless times without a single engagement. Then suddenly a certain break came, and…the rest is history, as they say.
What habits do you have to help keep you in good vocal and/or physical shape?
The real discipline for me takes place on the day of the performance. I stay very quiet until it is time to sing. If at all possible, the same holds true the day before. This kind of discipline is especially important for the tenor voice.
If there were one piece of advice that you wish someone had given you in the very beginning of your musical life, what would it have been?
What I did wrong and what I did right all turned out to be okay. I began as a young singer in Israel and was lucky to be there. Everything I have done since then, I’m glad I did. No one could have told me differently. And I don’t regret anything. My mistakes were part of the process.
Placido Domingo is the artistic director of the Washington Opera and artistic director designate of the Los Angeles Opera, where he will assume that position in 2000. He is also the founder of the Operalia vocal competition.
