Placido Domingo

Yo-Yo Ma and Placido Domingo are irrepressible collaborating animals. A list of artists in many disciplines and from the vast array of cultures with whom they have worked could probably fill a phone book for a mid-size town in Iowa. There may not be much important repertory for cello and tenor, but Domingo is also a conductor, and sooner or later these two ever-eager superstars simply had to perform together. That finally happened Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl. Ma was soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Dvorak's Cello Concerto, and Domingo stood on the podium.

Name change: Placido Domingo, Los Angeles Opera's Eli and Edythe Broad general director, announced the renaming of the title of the opera's music director to the Richard Seaver music director, to honor the late leader and benefactor. James Conlon now holds that title.

Placido Domingo: An article in Monday's Calendar section about the reopening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans said tenor Placido Domingo sang his first "La Traviata" in that city. It was the role of Manrico in Verdi's "Il Trovatore" that Domingo sang for the first time with the New Orleans Opera Assn.

In your preview on the "Ring" cycle ["Ring Master" by Diane Haithman, Feb. 15], when speaking of audience reaction to Achim Freyer's B-minor Mass presentation in 2002, Placido Domingo is quoted, "Perhaps some audience members thought it was eccentric to see a sacred oratorio in an opera house." Wow, Mr. then-Artistic Director, don't you people ever listen to your constituents? Not one objection I saw concerned anything of a religious/secular nature. We thought having mimes peer out from behind a graffiti-splashed scrim boring, irrelevant and interminable.

Britain's Royal Opera House has recruited tenor Placido Domingo to help ride out the recession next season with a historic double in which he sings tenor in Handel's "Tamerlano" and baritone in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra." The Spanish singer, who is general director of L.A. Opera, will notch his 26th role with the opera house when he appears in "Tamerlano" in March 2010, and in "Simon Boccanegra" three months later. With a reputation for expensive ticket prices and high production costs, the Royal Opera House is braced for a tough season in 2009 and 2010.

As if Los Angeles Opera didn't have enough challenges with the technical problems of realizing the extraordinarily theatrical vision of Achim Freyer and the demanding musical one of James Conlon, the company has given itself another admirable -- and, these days, uncommon -- task of presenting consistent casts throughout its entire run of Wagner's "Ring." That goes for both the initial presentations of the individual operas and for the three full cycles next year. But there is one exception.

Jose Carreras, who gained international fame as one of the Three Tenors with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, told the Times of London that his opera career may be over. In an interview published Friday, the 62-year-old Spanish singer said he could no longer withstand the rigors of performing principal opera roles, unamplified. "If I can do concert recitals, adapting the repertoire to my needs, then no problem, that's good enough," he said. "But with operas, unless the right circumstances come up, my career is done."

When you've dressed hundreds, perhaps thousands of performers over the course of more than 20 years, your wardrobe is bound to get crowded with the old and the outdated. Los Angeles Opera is putting more than 2,500 items up for sale today from its costume department in downtown L.A. (The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 330 S. Alameda St.) Some of the clothes hitting the racks were worn by such stars as Placido Domingo, Karita Mattila and Carol Vaness. The sale also includes costumes from productions by Robert Wilson ("Parsifal")

As we hurtle toward the next millennium, Calendar asked six recently appointed leaders of area cultural institutions--the leaders of tomorrow--to reflect on the future of the arts, both regionally and in a broader context. What follows is an edited version of their responses. Naturally, opinions differ, depending on the institutions represented, as well as the personalities of the individuals.

Luciano Pavarotti may not walk as easily as he once did, and he may even get light-headed on stage, as happened this past season at the Metropolitan Opera. Jose Carreras may not have much voice left. Placido Domingo may have a few other things to do, such as singing everywhere all the time, and running an opera company in Washington and a restaurant in New York.