Mexico flip-flops on Placido Domingo

Mexico flip-flops on Placido Domingo

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norman lebrecht

October 05, 2019

After initial reports that it had cancelled today’s lifetime award to Placido Domingo, the Premio Batuta (Batuta Prize) has issued this statement:

1) Maestro Placido Domingo will offer a special message for the award ceremony;

2) The award committee wishes to make it absolutely clear that the committee has not withdrawn the award for Maestro Domingo. On the contrary, the guild of classical music [represented by the committee] and the award gala concert will celebrate the Spanish tenor’s six decades of total dedication to the arts.

‘We are still going to give him the prize. We just hope for better times ahead and that everything gets better for him,’ the head of the organizing committee, Rene Platini, told Agence France Presse.

Full report here.

 

Comments

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    In many parts of the world women are totally oppressed, violated, enslaved. Instead of working to alleviate these serious problems, modern feminism (at least one that is based in the USA) is focused on mean spirited witch hunts. It would not even tackle these problems, as doing so may hurt the feelings of people of different cultures (who are always regarded as victims of Western imperialism).

  • Maestro Domingo is no better or worse than any other male human being on this planet – however ……he is and always will be one of the

    finest gentleman and tremendous musical talents ever to grace the stages of the world’s opera houses and concert halls.
    His flawless voice and supreme artistry on stage is unsurpassed throughout the ages and at present.
    Women who have denounced him as a predator should have spoken up when the alleged incidents occurred.
    Nothing said against him now will ever diminish his stature in the history of opera greats throughout the world.

    • Dr. Shirley Rombough says:

      I agree that the women should have sooken up when the incidents occurred. I know how it feels to experience sexual predatory behavior, as an academician my entire professional life. But I never heard of any of Mr. Domingo’s complainants accuse him of force or violence. Nor have I heard of any management personnel bringing up the topic of unwanted advances and changing his behavior. He has contributed more to opera than any living person. That should be recognized and honored. He has been gracious to his fellow performers on stage, not hogging the attention or recognition. He should receive all the honors those qualities and that status should bring him
      Dr. Shirley Rombough

  • Leonor Fontes says:

    He is a pervert, but Mexicans are not known for defending victims of sexual abuse.

  • Carlos Martin says:

    I think Mr Domingo should counter sue the women who are suing him for abuse sexual, on the basis these women have presented themselves to him, as an attractive nuisance..and..that these women as a group are actually targeting him for their own personal gain..Mr Domingo should never be targeted by anybody, group or cause. He should be protected by his piers from being a target. If it we’re me, I hitcthese women so hard legally, they’d wish they never heard of him..

    • V.Lind says:

      How has any of then made “personal gain”? If he had a case, he might well have counter-sued — if he does not, does that not say something?

      Why “should” he “never be targeted by anybody, group or cause”? He doesn’t walk on water.

      I realise English is probably not your first language, but in writing about being protected by “his piers” you have unwittingly hit on a rather amusing English joke.

      But the buying into the notion that Domingo is somehow exempt from the standards of behaviour expected of all decent men is not remotely funny. If he is innocent of all this — and he left LA saying he intended to clear his name — I hope he does act, and if he is innocent, I hope he succeeds. But I am not holding my breath.

      • jack says:

        “But the buying into the notion that Domingo is somehow exempt from the standards of behaviour expected of all decent men is not remotely funny.” Who decides the “standards of behavior expected of all decent men” and expects to enforce them worldwide (given different cultures)? And how do you define what constitutes “decent” men and, by inference, categorize who are “decent” women?

        • V.Lind says:

          it is expected in the culture that Domingo has been working in for over half a century that a woman can work alongside him without being harassed. 20 women have said he harassed them. Countless others have supported their contention — many of these clearly identified.

          My quarrel is more with Mr. Martin’s contention that Domingo “should” not be charged — I mean the word verbally, not legally — with anything, presumably because of who he is. Nobody is in some position of do-what-you-like with other people’s sensibilities, especially just because he is talented

          I don’t judge Domingo, or his accusers — my arguments have ALWAYS been with contentions like that. With notions like the exemption of the powerful and talented. With the notion that the press somehow one day decided arbitrarily to “take him down.”

          My observations include this: even PD has said he wanted to “clear his name.” That gives nothing away, but it is an admission that the behaviour CHARGED is not acceptable. If he gets it, how is it you can’t?

      • Yes Addison says:

        I doubt he will be suing the AP, the women, or organizations that have cut ties with him…and suing is what he’d be doing. No one is suing him, so he couldn’t “countersue” (as Carlos put it).

        I realize that some of his fans may imagine and look forward to a scenario in which woman after woman comes undone under aggressive questioning before tearfully shouting “All right, I lied! I was in love with him!” or similar, but it probably wouldn’t unfold that way in real life, and shaking the tree even harder could bring out more accusers and witnesses who have not involved themselves thus far. Domingo has little to gain from training an even brighter spotlight on these issues in a protracted legal case.

        More likely, he’ll continue to sing baritone roles and conduct at the venues that still welcome him, until he’s ready to call it a day or it’s somehow impossible for him to go on.

        • Saxon Broken says:

          “More likely, he’ll continue to sing baritone roles and conduct at the venues that still welcome him”

          The venues will get “smaller” and “less prestigious” over time. He is unlikely to be seen in the US, or even Northern Europe after is current dates are satisfied.

  • Excelente decisión. ! says:

    Excelente decisión!

  • Miguelina says:

    He deserve to be honor for his amazing career!
    Also, women that wait so long to accuse a sexually wrong doing to them, lose the veracity of their complain. No one that have self respect, unless you are a minor, should wait so long to reveil sexual misconduct against them. In my opinion it is suspicious that you didn’t accuse the perpetrator right away that makes me think that the victims were in agreement with a situation that was very wrong.

    • V.Lind says:

      What exactly are you saying? Was the situation “very wrong”? as the women have claimed (in some cases)?

      And you do not know, obviously, the climate that has prevented women from speaking out for a very long time. It has loosened up since the so-called MeToo movement — but women are still reluctant to risk heir positions in the face of powerful men they say abused them. Look at the number of people in these forums who rush to Domingo’s defence almost automatically, some saying that because he is who he is it should not matter. That sort of thing would prevent many women from speaking out.

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