Salzburg (Austria) (AFP)
Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, scheduled for the Salzburg Festival on Sunday, has been warmly applauded and hailed by a standing ovation for his first stage performance since the publication of accusations of sexual harassment targeting him, Austrian media reported.
"Triumph in Salzburg, standing ovation for Domingo despite the Metoo affair", headlined the regional daily Kleine Zeitung, a few hours after the performance of the opera Luisa Miller, of which the 78-year-old Spanish artist was the most expected.
For the newspaper "Salzburger Nachrichten", the public offered Placido Domingo "an ovation ostentatious", while the famous opera singer faces sexual harassment charges brought by nine women and aimed at actions that go back several years .
In a desire to offer a united face, all the singers of the production of this Verdi opera performed on stage before the beginning of the performance "and was immediately applauded", while the audience of the orchestra "rose from a block under the screams of bravo," writes the APA news agency.
"In this way, the Salzburg public has clearly shown that they are behind their star," the Austrian news agency said.
Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission, was among the spectators of the performance, according to press photos.
The allegations against Placido Domingo prompted the Los Angeles Opera, which Placido Domingo has been managing director since 2003, to announce an investigation, and two large American theaters to cancel performances.
However, no cancellation has been announced by the European cinemas where the artist is scheduled in the coming months. Placido Domingo is scheduled to perform in Hungary on Wednesday and again in Salzburg on August 31.
The director of the Salzburg Festival had put forward the presumption of innocence and considered "objectively unjust and irresponsible, on the human level, to make final judgments now".
Living legend of the opera, Placido Domingo, who in half a century of career has recorded more than 100 albums and has performed more than 4,000 times, is implicated by eight singers and a dancer reproaching him with inappropriate gestures and forced kisses, beginning in the late 1980s. The singer described these claims as "disturbing and, as presented, inaccurate".
© 2019 AFP