Exclusive: Domingo admits one Russian to his Operalia
NewsHere’s the dilemma:
Placido Domingo has accepted lavish Putin hospitality in Moscow since his career crashed in America, for reasons we need not repeat.
But how was he to run his next Operalia competition in Latvia, which is under military threat from Moscow, without offending Putin?
Solution: allow one Russian into the competition. Just the one to show there’s no bias.
Here are the competitors:
Maria Brea, soprano, Venezuela
Fleuranne Brockway, mezzo-soprano, Australia
Maire Therese Carmack, mezzo-soprano, USA
Anthony Ciaramitaro, tenor, USA
Thomas Cilluffo, tenor, USA
Louise Foor, soprano, Belgium
Juliana Grigoryan, soprano, Armenia
Jongwon Han, bass-baritone, South Korea
Yewon Han, soprano, South Korea
Jenni Hietala, soprano, Finland
In-Ho Jeong, bass, South Korea
Duke Kim, tenor, USA
Daniils Kuzmins, baritone, Latvia
Yunuet Laguna, soprano, Mexico
Jack Lee, baritone, UK
Kangyoon Shine Lee, tenor, South Korea
Seonwoo Lee, soprano, South Korea
Anthony León, tenor, USA
James Ley, tenor, USA
Maria Novella Malfatti, soprano, Italy
Raven McMillon, soprano, USA
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano, USA
Madison Nonoa, soprano, New Zealand
Youngjun Park, baritone, South Korea
Grzegorz Pelutis, bass-baritone, Poland
Serena Sáenz Molinero, soprano, Spain
Emily Sierra, mezzo-soprano, USA
Richard Trey Smagur, tenor, USA
Vasiliy Sokolov, baritone, Russia
Jihoon Son, tenor, South Korea
Bat-Erdene Sosorbaram, bass, Mongolia
Robert Stahley, tenor, USA
Nils Wanderer, countertenor, Germany
Hongni Wu, mezzo-soprano, China
Oğulcan Yilmaz, bass-baritone, Turkey
Only one from the UK, once again we are not doing well in the music stakes.
Well done, Placido, no reason not to accept Russian
artists.
His career has crushed in America because quite a few Americans are bigoted hypocrites.
The Supreme Court just emphatically proved that twice.
If I were an American, I would follow Jamie Barton’s view (https://twitter.com/jbartonmezzo/status/1542340771063287808?s=21&t=f0dHfXZpUZbGmh3WIv0UcA)
But do you really think that a few appearances would cause this internationally highly recognized competition to put its reputation on the line because of something like this?
Since you came up with this idea, I think you are the type of person who would do just that.
And if he were as you imply, do you really believe that Americans would be allowed to participate.
I don’t even know if you are just stupid or just malicious and envious.
Yes and La Monnaie is staging The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin next season. So what?
Well, needs be for danade limitation! One lot of politics to counteract another lot of even worse politics in singing!
Though I don’t know, who the members of the jury were, who were responsible for the pre-selection, I can’t imagine, that they were under any pressure from Domingo, which singers from which countries to choose or not to choose. Of course you can accuse me of being too naive….
I look forward to a curtailment of snide articles such as this, when in winter Europeans will be freezing and starving, thanks to nothing else but their own hubris and idiocy.
I look forward to your knowing the indescrible pain of losing a loved one to a violent, unnecessary death.
Another dodgy competition, not even jury announced yet a week before. Looks already like the winner will be Ms Grigoryan whose agent is guess who – Domingo’s grandson! Nepotism as always, can it never be changed?