• Harassment, Domingo cancels his commitments at the Metropolitan in New York
  • Harassment, another 11 women accuse the tenor Placido Domingo

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25 September 2019

Placido Domingo away from all the performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The decision, announced jointly by the theater and the famous Spanish tenor, comes after the repeated accusations of sexual harassment by several women against the 78-year-old. The news was released a few hours from the time when the king of the opera would have to tread the stage of the Met to interpret Giuseppe Verdi's 'Macbeth'. "Placido Domingo has agreed to withdraw from all future performances at the Met, with immediate effect," the Opera said in a statement, stating that the star agreed "to have the need to resign." Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, according to reports from the ABC, the Met announced the suspension of the tenor Vittorio Grigolo. The same had already been stopped by the Royal Opera House which launched an investigation into inappropriate behavior held by Grigolo during a performance in Tokyo.

Domingo - who was director of some of the most prestigious opera houses in the world, and made his debut at the Met at the age of 27, almost half a century ago - confirmed the theater's statement explaining that he had "asked to retire". "I strongly contest the recent accusations made against me and I am worried by a climate in which people are sentenced without due process," said the singer, who is currently accused of harassment by 20 women. But "after thinking about it, I think my appearance in this production of 'Macbeth' could distract from the hard work of my colleagues both on stage and behind the scenes," he added. "As a result, I asked to retire and I thank the management of the Met for having kindly accepted my request," he concluded, explaining that he considered his "last performance on stage at the Met" to be the rehearsal. testimonies of eight opera singers and a dancer in which there was talk of harassment dating back to the 1980s. Later, the agency also revealed the allegations of eleven other women. From that moment, several theaters, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Opera, immediately canceled his upcoming performances. The same was done by the Dallas Opera for the March 2020 gala. The Los Angeles Opera, of which Domingo has been general manager since 2003, has hired an external consultant to investigate the matter.

As for Vittorio Grigolo, considered a real star at the Met Opera, the suspension came, as mentioned, following an investigation by the Royal Opera House in London, which decided to temporarily remove him from the stage after an episode that occurred the week last during a tour of the London theater in Japan. Grigolo would have palmed a chorister during a final bow before the public and other artists. "Following the alleged incident concerning Vittorio Grigolo denounced by the Royal Opera House - reads a statement - the Met will suspend it for immediate effect from all the performances awaiting the results of the Roh investigation. The Met has no comment to add ".

The news of the suspension of Grigolo dalla Roh was initially circulated on The Sun and refers to last Wednesday at the end of Gounod's Faust. The Royal Opera House considered the alleged incident on the serious stage to the point of immediately replacing the Italian tenor from the tour in Japan, in its place, in fact, for the last performance in Yokohama, there will be the Russian tenor Georgy Vasiliev. "Following the alleged 18 September incident involving Vittorio Grigolo - a statement issued to NPR states - the Royal Opera House immediately launched an investigation and Mr Grigolo was suspended. We are unable to comment further on question while the investigation is in progress ". Similarly, on the part of Grigolo at the moment there is no comment.

Ironically Grigolo was suspended by the two theaters in which in 2010 he made two sensational debuts. Almost an enfant prodige, Grigolo debuted at the age of 13 in the role of the shepherd boy in Tosca at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, alongside Luciano Pavarotti. In 2000, at just 23 years of age, he was the youngest tenor in Italian history to sing at the Teatro alla Scala for the opening concert of the Verdian year, under the direction of maestro Riccardo Muti. In addition to the work, Grigolo also tried to cultivate his passion for pop music by developing a format already experimented by Pavarotti. In 2015 he sang with Brian May for a gala evening at the Verona Arena. The following year he performed with Sting, Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor at Carnegie Hall for the biennial The Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund, organized by Sting himself and Trudie Styler. He also masterfully played Caruso by Lucio Dalla, with whom he shared a great friendship.