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Placido Domingo to return to stage after sexual harrassment scandal

The 79-year-old is convalescing from coronavirus - Laszlo Balogh
The 79-year-old is convalescing from coronavirus - Laszlo Balogh

Spanish opera star Plácido Domingo has announced he will return to the stage in September in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal.

The 79-year-old tenor-turned-baritone, who is currently convalescing after contracting coronavirus, posted dates for the operas Simon Boccanegra and Nabucco at Vienna’s Staatsoper on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Several theatres around the world cancelled appearances by Mr Domingo after US investigations found him responsible for sexually harassing dozens of women earlier this year.

In an interview with Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung, Staatsoper director Bogdan Roscic confirmed the appearances would start with three performances of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in September.

“Domingo wants to say goodbye to his Viennese public. I have long since closed those contracts and I also intend to honour them,“ said Mr Roscic.

In February an investigation carried out by the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) union into complaints from 27 women found “a clear pattern of sexual misconduct and abuse of power by Mr Domingo” while he held senior management positions at Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera.

The singer issued an apology for the “hurt” his actions had caused before qualifying his statement by claiming he had “never behaved aggressively with anyone [or] done anything to obstruct or impede anyone’s career”.

Last month Los Angeles Opera said it found accusations of inappropriate conduct from 10 women to be “credible”, and the singer was forced to withdraw from a series of planned performances in his native Spain, the US and at London’s Royal Opera House.

Mr Domingo was treated for coronavirus in a hospital in Acapulco, Mexico in March before announcing that he had beaten the virus.

“Luckily, I was under medical supervision from the very first symptom, given my age and conditions, so Covid-19 was suspected straight away and this helped me greatly,” he wrote to his fans on Facebook on March 30.

He has since announced fresh engagements, including a solo show scheduled for December in Minsk and the Vienna performances, although it is not yet clear whether Austria’s coronavirus situation will permit the appearances to go ahead in September.

Before the results of the investigations emerged, audiences had remained loyal to Mr Domingo. He received a standing ovation in Salzburg, Austria, last August after the first stories describing his alleged abuse were published.

The singer received a world-record 80-minute ovation in Vienna in 1991.

In his most recent performance in Spain in December Mr Domingo got rapturous applause from the public inside Valencia’s Palace of Arts for his Nabucco.

But after the AGMA panel revealed its findings in February, Mr Domingo was cold-shouldered by Spain’s establishment.

Spain’s culture minister, José Manuel Rodríguez, decided to cancel Mr Domingo’s planned performances at the state-run Teatro de la Zarzuela “as a debt of solidarity with the women” who have been victims of the singer.

The main opera house in Mr Domingo’s home city of Madrid, Teatro Real, also banished the singer, citing its “zero-tolerance policy on harassment and abuse of all kinds”.

In two stories by the Associated Press news agency last year, 26 women, most of whom were fellow singing professionals, said they had been harassed or received unwanted suggestive overtures from Mr Domingo.