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Spanish tenor Placido Domingo will sing as a baritone to accomplish one of his career dreams, playing the lead role in Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Simon Boccanegra," his spokesman said Thursday
Domingo, who recently turned 66, will portray in 2009 the pirate Simon Boccanegra who becomes ruler of Genoa, spokesman Edgar Benson told AFP.
He will first perform the role at the Berlin opera, then at La Scala in Milan under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. He will eventually appear at London's Covent Garden under the direction of Antonio Pappano.
"He had always expressed the desire for many years, some day, to do Simon Boccanegra, the title part, having done the other part, the tenor part, Gabriele Adorno," Benson said.
He finally accepted the challenge after a discussion with Argentine-Israeli Barenboim, musical director of Berlin's Deutsche Straatsoper theater.
Benson denied that Domingo was planning a new singing carreer: "He's not becoming a baritone, as some people have automatically assumed.
"That would be ridiculous, that would be an excursion into another land."
Domingo, whose flexible range has allowed him to interpret 123 different singing roles, was to hold his 3,300th performance Thursday at New York's Metropolitan Opera, interpreting the leading role in Tan Dun's new opera, "The First Emperor."
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AFPEntertainment-opera-Domingo
AFP 252327 GMT 01 07
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