A compromised interview with Angela Turner Wilson
mainSupporters of Placido Domingo have come up with an interview given by his named accuser to the Kansas City Star in March 2006, seven years after she now alleges she was groped by Domingo during a production of Le Cid in Washington DC.
In the interview, Ms Wilson is asked for a career highlight:
“Big opera moment: Singing “Le Cid” at Washington Opera with Placido Domingo: “It’s like standing next to a force of nature.””
No mention of any unpleasantness.
Well that certainly throws the cat among the pigeons. What an incredible statement. And at a time when he was molesting her. Allegedly.
Also memories of past events change in time. Even subtle shifts in memory would have huge implications in the seriousness and the context of what actually took place. I am afraid anyone who does not report a serious misconduct promptly have no credibility. The argument that they feared for their career prospects is feeble. If that is the case then they made a pact with the devil, and have no right to complain now.
Ah yes, women should give up their careers for the greater good. Men, on the other hand…
Yes, in America. Try Continental Europe who are laughing at the fuss and saying, if you don’t like the heat, then get out of the fire!
Hopefully your memory will shift months from now to allow you to forget how eager you were to defend the indefensible.
She wrote about it in her journal at the time. Also she told her husband and her parents. So her memory of it is locked in, so to speak.
Well, there it is again that double, twofaced attitude that I just posted about earlier on (as if someone would care to partake).
They all seem to want the Domingo-effect, but mind, no touching.
They all talk around him, very few to his face.
Something tells me you’re not from within the business. You might understand if you were.
I have never met a reasonable man who would dare to put his hands in a woman’s dress to touch her bare breasts (unless they are lovers). Neither have I met a woman who would put up with such a deranged behaviour. This allegation is hardly credible.
You really ought to get around more.
Where do you live? Have you ever worked in a theater? Seems not.
Exactly. Years ago Leonard Bernstein ran up to me at a party, pulled open my blouse and kissed my breast. Odd, yes, but in those days it went with the territory.
Leonard Bernstein was homosexual.Does it still count?
Mustafa, you probably have met women who have been sexually assaulted by men in control of their working prospects, but most women know that they will suffer repercussions if they talk, and it is humiliating to discuss, especially with people who have routinely shown that they wouldn’t believe them if it happened anyway.
How anyone can make the case that this disproves anything, and at the same time witness the public vilification of anyone who is on the record now about Domingo, is beyond me.
She is one of twenty – 20! – now and people still don’t want to find her credible (because yes, it is a deliberate decision to not care). And she should have shot her career 15 years ago to stand alone against the most powerful actor in lyric opera?
Disproves what?
Nothing has been proven.
It is an astonishing statement. Seven years after the alleged incident she is still referring to it as her high point in opera. Despite the fact that during that time she was allegedly sexually assaulted.
She is wholly discredited.
Eighteen of the other nineteen are anonymous cowards.
18 of 20 may be anonymous to you and I but not to the AP and certainly not to investigators. And far from being cowards they are tremendously courageous, for it takes balls to issue sexual harrassment and abuse of power accusations against the powerful and well-connected, as is (but may soon no longer be) this individual known as Plácido Domingo.
Next you’ll wonder why Harvey Weinstein kept winning oscars.
Wholly discredited? Not even close.
Really?
Well please explain then why, SEVEN years after the fact she refers to the experience as her high point in opera at a time when there would be absolutely no material value in doing so.
Wholly discredited. And let the accusers come out. Anonymous accusations are almost as disgusting as false ones. How can one reply when one does not know to whom one is replying? A basic tenet of natural justice being shredded.
Poor baffled Domingo! “How can I reply when I don’t know which of the hundreds of women I’ve groped have accused me? I need names! Give me names! Help me narrow it down!”
How does that discredit anything? She had already forced herself to perform with him. Having made that decision, the only thing to do would be to compartmentalize for the sake of her profession. Assault or no assault, it would be surprising if she didn’t mention him as a high point, even the high point, of her career.
There is no number that would be large enough to satisfy the “there must be incontrovertible proof” crowd. Also, there is no such thing as power dynamics.
In every civilized legal system you have the right to confront your accuser, which, by definition, is impossible with anonymous accusations. They should be disregarded.
As for this accuser: I find it hard to believe that she picks, after years and years of a career, this moment as a highlight, when at the same time this was the moment of the utmost humiliation. I would certainly have picked another, less conflicted memory as my best career moment…
I’ve seen a few arguments on this site since this specific saga began.
1. It didn’t happen. Nobody knows exactly what did or did not happen, but we’ve got 20 accusers. Twenty. That is not a small number by any means.
2. Even if it did happen, she should get over it.
3. If it did happen, and she’s not over it, she has to be reduced to the sum total of one experience and then not be allowed to appreciate at all that she sang with a great singer, despite his horrible behavior.
Which one do the haters want to choose this time? Just admit you believe the non-denial denial by Domingo’s spokesperson and admit that you just want to hear the man sing and the 20 harassed women(and probably countless others) should just shut up and let you listen to his records in peace. At least you’d be honest.
Exactly !! It is possible that he did what he is accused of, and the artistic experience with him onstage was amazing. It is very possible for great artists to do unacceptable things. It doesn’t make their talent or art less great, it just makes them flawed humans, as most of us tend to be. I am in no way defending or excusing what may or may not have happened. I wasn’t there. Will we ever fully know. I am quite certain however, that genius and evil can coexist.
I vote for #2. Get over it, ladies. We’ve all been groped at some time, we’ve all had to say NO more times than should be necessary. Surely “get over it” is the healthiest alternative?
OMG, read what you wrote!
“We’ve all been groped at some time, we’ve all had to say NO more times than should be necessary”
Even you admit that this is a problem, that it is pervasive, that it is persistent. Why should the victims of this acknowledged problem have to “get over it”?? Why can’t the perpetrators be identified and held responsible, even years after the fact? You are part of the problem, in that you enable the bad behavior and blame the victims for not liking it!
Attitudes like this create the atmosphere in which harassers can harass with impunity.
You should go into trauma counseling. “Just get over it! Next!”
This interview was 13 years ago. She only felt safe to talk about the abuse when other women started to speak up. What was she supposed to say in an interview that wouldn’t jeopardize her career or cause backlash?
She was asked for a career highlight, not a specific question about PD. Are you telling me that she hasn’t had other special moments in her career she could have mentioned instead?
Apples and oranges and totally irrelevant. Singers everywhere used to peg their names to the likes of Pavarotti and Domingo to anyone who cared to listen, as currency for publicity and bragging rights and such. The reality is that “I sang with Domingo” may have meant something then but means little to nothing nowadays not only because of a devalued currency due to hyperinflation (LOL) because those two have sung with practically everyone, from the bottom of the barrel to the crème de la crème regardless. In other words, those two long ago debased the currency of true opera singing in the name of popularizing an artform not meant for the masses and in the name of enriching themselves at the expense of the artform. And look where we are. Besides, what Ms. Wilson may have bragged about thirteen years earlier is a direct reflection of where she was at the time careerwise and all that is implicit with that. Thirteen years later, she has had time to reflect on what happened to her and is now speaking out because the winds have changed direction. Good for and profoundly courageous of her.
Indeed. And that interview does not undermine her later accusation, they are two different things in different contexts.
The way Angela Wilson has been treated illustrates why it’s common practice around the world for journalists not to name the victims of sexual assault. When they are, they are often further victimized by public denunciations.
exactly
Public denunciations? As opposed to anonymous accusations which cannot be answered because one does not know who one is answering?
If you’re going to make accusations that may ruin a person’s life and career then it is childish not to expect those accusations to be rigorously tested. And they should be.
If it ever ended up in court a good lawyer would make hay with her claim above. And a jury might well believe she was full of it.
Only a jury of YOUR peers…
Too feeble even to rise to the level of “nice try.” Was she saying in the interview that he was a perfect gentleman and an example for all men in the workplace?
The more recent AP story NOTES that some of the women who have accused Domingo of improper behavior have praised other aspects of who he is. Some of them “expressed lingering admiration.” Some of them said he was generous, and that his contributions to opera are indispensable.
Not all of them are saying they wish they could give every moment of those times in their lives back, including the onstage artistic experiences.
What this old quote tells me is that a credible accuser still found singing Le Cid with Domingo to be a career highlight, and that she admired him as a performing artist. She was named WNO’s Artist of the Year that season, so of course it was a career highlight. She probably STILL admires him as an artist.
A different, beloved singer, who’s had a wonderful career that is actually still ongoing, wrote a blog post several years ago about sexual harassment she had suffered. She put a couple of blind items in. One was about a brilliant, conductor (unnamed, but I strongly suspect I know which one, because I know which conductors she sang with and when) who accosted her in her dressing room. He stopped engaging her after she firmly turned him down, when she felt she was still singing at her best. Even with that being part of the experience, years later she wrote that she learned so much from him that was irreplaceable, and she would never give back the musical experiences.
What she didn’t want to have was the harassment.
It’s really not that complex to me.
Good Lord, a sensible comment!
all BS of sck women maybe ‘refused’ by Placido Domingo !…enough BS,,,people and press are sickening…, feminism of the US is a JOKE !….sorry for Martha and the Children , and to Placido … FREGATENE, SONO TUTTE MALATE DI MENTE CHE AVREBBERO VOLUTO ….e non ci sono riuscite!…your friend since 45 years, and her daughter WE LOVE YOUand your Family !
One feeling does not preclude the other. ATW can still think that, artistically, Domingo is incredible, and that as a human being, maybe he’s just gross and abusive. And she is from a prominent family, so there is no desire for her gaining some advantage from speaking out. I interned at a family-owned business in England in my twenties, one which was prominent in the fashion design area that I was pursuing. I enjoyed my experience there in terms of honing my craft but not in terms of the lecherous owner. On the one hand he was kind enough to allow me to learn from his company. On the other, I suffered constant leers from him and eventually it was groping and him trying to ram his tongue down my throat while my back was to a wall. I reported the incident to his son, his right hand at the company, and I was not believed. I was then pressured to leave my position early, which I did. This was not the only time I have suffered sexual harassment or groping by work superiors and it is one reason that I have chosen to be self-employed for the last 30 years. I made an additional donation to The Dallas Opera in appreciation of the decision to cancel his performance.
Another accuser bites the dust. The AP didn’t see this because they were only looking to crucify Domingo, not get to the truth. Another news organization has become a fake news distributor.
Karl—enough already! When you post so many comments, it’s annoying. We know you have a dog in the fight because of your history. Go see a shrink instead of trying to work things out here. You’re not persuasive with your arguments, and it’s getting pathetic to see you try so hard.
If you have an argument state it instead of engaging in personal attacks. Ad hominem attacks only show that a person has no logical argument.
So, ad hominem attacks are unacceptable but ad feminam attacks are totally fine? My problem is with YOUR argument, given over and over, which is that all women are liars because of one bad thing that happened to you. That’s as illogical as a woman saying all men are predators because she knows one. See how annoying? Sorry Karl, I’m not convinced you have a good handle on anything. But I know you’re desperate to always get the last word, so go ahead and have it.
Musicartists make everything to ruin their enemies careers and by that improve their own.Digusting
Times were different then … not right but by TODAY’S standards …
Let’s pose a different situation. This is purely fictional. Suppose a conductor or music director was being harassed by a woman who just couldn’t accept that they had no interest her. Her ego disallowed the possibility that she was not desirable to him. She never thought that he was happily married, or chose celibacy or even just not interested in women. If he decided not to hire her again to protect his “lifestyle” would he be a monster.