Placido Domingo

New Orleans, hammered by Hurricane Katrina 3 1/2 years ago and still lurching toward a full recovery, received a helping hand -- and voice -- Saturday. Superstar tenor Placido Domingo culminated a 10-day grand reopening of the city-owned Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, which has undergone $22 million in renovations after being severely damaged by the hurricane flood waters.

In the April issue of BBC Music Magazine, Placido Domingo tops a survey of the 20 greatest tenors of all time. Caruso comes in second; Pavarotti, third. The BBC reasons that Domingo is the rarest creature of his art form, being "a tenor who uses his voice in re-creating a great art form." As an Angeleno, my only argument is with the "re." In this town, Domingo created opera. He had help, but without him we wouldn't be where we are today.

Los Angeles Opera will celebrate the 40th anniversary of company general manager Placido Domingo's first appearance at the company's home, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with an April 18 gala concert at the theater at which Domingo is expected to perform. The celebrated tenor sang the title role in Alberto Ginastera's "Don Rodrigo" at the then-new Chandler Pavilion on Nov. 17, 1967.

Rehearsing the Los Angeles Opera chorus, conductor Plácido Domingo was trying to get the hushed effect he wanted for part of the dreaded "Dies irae" (Day of Judgment) in Verdi's Requiem, a work he will conduct Sunday afternoon as part of the company's season-opening weekend. "You can't imagine what it's going to be like when God really gets mad," he said. Covering his mouth to suggest terror, he whispered, "He's going to come and point at every one of you -- 'You, yes, you: Go there.

D'oh! re, mi: Plácido Domingo will be taking singing lessons from Homer Simpson in an upcoming episode of the animated series "The Simpsons," the superstar tenor's spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, confirmed Monday. In an episode titled "The Homer of Seville," slated to air Sept. 30, Domingo, playing himself, receives tips from the Simpson family's doughy patriarch on the proper way to hit a high note. Said Seltzer: "He had such a wonderful time doing it.

The 2007 Hollywood Bowl season began in entertaining fashion Friday night with visual and terpsichorean delights, a colorful array of music, the induction of a pair of veteran artists into the Hall of Fame and a concluding burst of spectacular pyrotechnics -- all of it intensified by the glow of Hollywood celebrity. It was, in other words, a mini-version of the sometimes weird eclecticism that the Hollywood Bowl is all about.