In the wake of sexual harassment allegations, Plácido Domingo has withdrawn from the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Macbeth,” in which he was to appear Wednesday night. The superstar tenor appears to have ended his relationship with the company.
“I am happy that, at the age of 78, I was able to sing the wonderful title role in the dress rehearsal of ‘Macbeth,’ which I consider my last performance on the Met stage,” Domingo said Tuesday in a statement.
In two Associated Press stories in August and September, 20 women accused Domingo of unwanted physical contact, from kisses to violent groping, in incidents spanning more than three decades.
Only two of the women, the mezzo-soprano Patricia Wulf and the soprano Angela Turner Wilson, were identified by name. The AP has a policy of not identifying victims of alleged sexual assault.
The opera world’s reaction to the allegations has been mixed. After the first article, Domingo, one of the most popular and beloved figures in the opera world, performed as scheduled in Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, where he was welcomed with long ovations. He was also warmly received at an Aug. 28 concert in Szeged, Hungary.
Opera companies and orchestras in Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, however, all canceled scheduled performances, and the Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo has been general director since 2003, opened an investigation. The Metropolitan Opera said it was awaiting the outcome of the L.A. investigation before deciding what steps to take. (Domingo also was the head of the Washington National Opera for 14 years, before leaving in 2011.) But that investigation wasn’t going to wrap up before Domingo’s three scheduled performances of “Macbeth” this fall, and rehearsals for the opera proceeded. At 78, Domingo no longer sings tenor roles; the title role in “Macbeth” is one of a number of baritone parts he has tried out in recent years.
Some of Domingo’s co-stars, such as the soprano Anna Netrebko, who is singing Lady Macbeth, took public stands in his support. But NPR reported last week that a number of other artists were evidently not happy with what they saw as a failure to protect artists from sexual harassment, particularly in the wake of allegations against its disgraced former music director, James Levine, who was dismissed from the Met in 2018 after being suspended. (Levine subsequently sued the company, in a motion that was recently settled for an undisclosed sum.)
Criticism of Domingo and the Met was gradually building, and protests were planned for before the Wednesday show.
The decision for Domingo to withdraw was announced late Tuesday afternoon.
“The Metropolitan Opera confirms that Plácido Domingo has agreed to withdraw from all future performances at the Met, effective immediately,” the Met said in a statement. “The Met and Mr. Domingo are in agreement that he needed to step down.”
Debra Katz, an attorney for Wulf, one of the women named in the AP stories, said Tuesday that the Met didn’t do enough to protect the women from harassment.
“It appears that while the pain and indignity of more than 20 women who were sexually harassed by Mr. Domingo was not enough for the Met to do the right thing, but the public outcry was,” Katz said in a letter to the Met.
The baritone Zelko Lucic will replace Domingo in his three “Macbeths.” Lucic was already scheduled to sing in all the remaining performances of the run.
