Domingo and Florez will headline Putin’s World Cup
mainThe Russian state agency Tass has announced:
Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo and his Peruvian colleague Juan Diego Flores will take part in 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony. The global stars will perform in Red Square in the center of Moscow on June 13, the event organizer’s press service informed.
‘As previously reported, pianist Denis Matsuev, global opera stars Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eivazov, Ildar Abdrazakov, Aida Garifullina and Albina Shagimuratova will participate in the concert. Their performances will be accompanied by the Mariinsky Theatre symphony orchestra directed by Valery Gergiev.
However, Roberto Alagna has pulled out. No reason given.
Something smells. Corruption knows corruption when it sees it. And so we have the notoriously corrupt FIFA, the Putin/Gergiev/Netrebko axis and the peripatetic and omnipresent Domingo waltzing in step. As I said, stinks to the high heavens.
Hear, hear. Truly horrible, and completely unrepresentative of the proper classical world. I adored, even revered, Domingo for decades. Now, I just want him to retire with some grace and spend his time giving back. Think Milnes.
So it’s corrupt; what isn’t. If it’s musically good, that’s good enough for me. It’s better that the peoples of the world get together to play soccer and make music, than to just stew at home in their own self righteousness. There’s always a propaganda angle. What of it.
The fact that in the US corruption just has been legally codified and that the cheap entertainment for the masses is better, doesn‘t make it a less corrupt country than Russia. Arguably to the contrary actually.
I‘m glad they play football and enjoy classical music in Russia.
What do you expect? Snoop Dogg, Conchita, Rihanna, and [you name it]?
As for me, I’m looking forward to see on TV the World Cup opening with Gergiev, Domingo & friends.
By the way: not bad for football hooligans to listen to some real singers sometimes.
+1
Wondering the BBC will broadcast it? Fingers crossed.
Deeply embarrassing.
Soccer is deeply embarrassing in my book. That doesn’t make me right.
Thats not Florez in the photo with Domingo and Putin..Its Jose Carreras
it must be a treat to watch/listen to this concert … really global stars gala – you found the most exact word , Norman … go Russia, go
Despite his stellar career and the immense charm he frequently shows, Domingo has always been attracted to cash and perks. He became pals with Imelda Marcos in the late-1970s when she and her husband were looting the Philippines treasury. She kept a New York apartment where PD would sometimes be a dinner guest. Learning that he had to fly somewhere, one of her retinue of rich ‘Blue Ladies’, as they were called, would arrange for a private jet to be at his disposal.
When he saw Pavarotti getting six-figure fees and private jets for his arena concerts in the 1980s, he wanted in on the act. Tickets for his first effort in London failed so miserably it was cancelled at a few days notice. He did eventually make it into cash-cow arenas – thanks first to IMG Artists with concerts in Australia and Singapore! Although Mario Dradi was behind the Rome 1990 World Cup Three Tenors concert, it was Tibor Rudas, presumably with Pavarotti’s connivance, who stole them from Dradi and upped the ante by a huge amount by giving the tenors a reported $1 million each plus royalties for Los Angeles in 1994. It has been reported that with his connections to LA and his contract lawyer being based there, Domingo had first tried to organise that LA concert on his own, only to find that Rudas had beaten him to it.
I don’t know how much cash each received for their 1998 and 2002 world Cup exploits in Paris and Japan. But during the multi-year World Tour, eventually also controlled by Rudas after his German partner found himself in jail for several years – the result of a court case involving tax fraud re singer’s fees(!), the international music business was awash with offers of Three Tenors concerts at fees ranging from $3 million to $10 million. For Beijing and Seoul in 2001, Domingo had a private jet to and from St. Petersburg whilst the other two flew intercontinental on scheduled airlines, their private jets being reserved only for the short hops between the cities.
For the Moscow concert to be a major international popular success, Putin can not rely solely on Russian artists. Bringing in Domingo adds some of the fading allure of those earlier World Cup extravaganzas for a worldwide TV audience. No doubt Domingo will once again be receiving a monster fee, probably for minimal participation.
In former times I used to admire Placido Domingo. But by now he’s an almost tragic figure, someone who can’t become old with dignity and who’s butchered his own legend because he obviously can’t live without admiration, applause and money, money and even more money. I can’t help wondering: Does he believe he can take his money with him into the afterlife?
I’d be interested to know what gives you the special insight that enables you to adjudge that Domingo is ‘an almost tragic figure’ and is motivated by the need to accumulate money for himself, rather than, for example, simply a drive to carry on working for as long as he can.
Why attack Plácido Domingo (as usual) – and not also Juan Diego Flores? And for your information: Plácido has sung at all World Cup’s since 1990. Four with Pavarotti and Carreras as the “Three Tenors” and the others with for instance Lang Lang in Brasil.
Pretty shocking that anyone would have any part in this Russian propaganda after Salisbury and MH17.
Maybe this forum can come with a list of politicians it is ok for musicians to associate themselves with? Maybe the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein? Is it ok for musicians to associate with the POTUS? A previous British PM is considered a war criminal by many.
Where will this mania for bans and moral posturing end? As to hurt British feelings in the poisonings, even The Economist, a venerable British weekly asserted that these crimes were not necessarily ordered by the Kremlin, and in fact, if they weren’t it’s a worse scenario (b/c it means that there are rogue forces that the Kremlin unleashed but is unable to control).
Maybe this forum can come with a list of politicians it is ok for musicians to associate themselves with? Maybe the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein? Is it ok for musicians to associate with the POTUS? A previous British PM is considered a war criminal by many.
Where will this mania for bans and moral posturing end? As to hurt British feelings in the poisonings, even The Economist, a venerable British weekly asserted that these crimes were not necessarily ordered by the Kremlin, and in fact, if they weren’t it’s a worse scenario (b/c it means that there are rogue forces that the Kremlin unleashed but is unable to control).
It’s not just the British government that thinks Russia was responsible. The governments of 28 other countries have come out saying that they agree with the UK government, as has NATO and the EU. It has come out that Yulia Skripal’s emails were being hacked by Russian intelligence for five years before her attempted murder. A former KGB/FSB officer has said that he was given prior warning that Russia was attempting to murder Sergei Skripal. It has also come out that Russian intelligence was known to be experimenting with methods of administering deadly doses of nerve agent, including by putting it on door handles.
Hello, it’s soccer. Let them play.