Walter Finch
LEGENDARY opera singer Placido Domingo is facing new historical sexual harassment charges three years after the the first accusations derailed his career.
An anonymous singer on La Sexta’s La Salvados TV show claimed Domingo, 80, asked to touch her inappropriately at a theatre in Spain in the early 2000s.
Domingo, one third of The Three Tenors troupe alongside Luciano Pavarotti that popularised opera singing in the 90s, has so far denied the allegations and no criminal charges have ever been brought.
The whistleblower, who chose to conceal her identity out of fear of reprisals, told of how the superstar opera singer, born José Plácido Domingo Embil, asked to touch her after a rehearsal in front of other performers and crew.
“The first time that I felt unease was when we were rehearsing.
“He [Plácido] told me in front of everyone: “Listen, can I put my hand in one of these lovely pockets of yours?”
“I was wearing trousers with an embroidered back pocket,’ she said.
“I had a bad stomach because I thought, ‘what can I say to [Domingo] in order to carry on normally?’
“If I tell him no, there will be consequences and if I say yes, I don’t even want to think about it.”
She did not make a report against Domingo because she thought that he was ‘untouchable’ and she did not want to offend him.
“How do you say it? He is Plácido Domingo, and you are nobody. He’s untouchable, he shouldn’t, but he is.”
These situations ‘are well-known in the world’, she went on to explain.
One of the first pieces of advice given to women is not to get into an elevator alone with the plus-size singer, she added.
During the live performance, the tenor even took advantage of the darkness between one act and another on stage to kiss her on the mouth.
“A kiss that I didn’t see coming nor could I dodge it and nor did I want to receive it”.
The program claimed to have corroborated the accusation with a witness who she spoke about it with at the time.
The singing star’s career stuttered to a virtual halt in 2019 in the wake of allegations over sexual misbehaviour towards women.
The opera singer was accused of sexual misconduct initially by eight women three years ago.
That grew to over three dozen female performers and backstage staff who were mentioned in a report published by the American Guild of Music artists.
Most of the victims preferred to stay anonymous but accused Domingo of ‘unwanted touching’ and attempts to ‘kiss them on the lips’.
Soprano Angela Turner Wilson said that Domingo entered her dressing room before a performance and touched her breasts leaving her ‘stunned’ and ‘humiliated’.
No charges have ever been brought against the singer but he apologised for making his female colleagues ‘uncomfortable’ and he denied any ‘aggressive’ behaviour.
The allegations cost Domingo dearly as he resigned as director of the Los Angeles Opera Company.
American venues pulled all of his scheduled dates, along with appearances around the world.
But in an interview with El Mundo in January 2022, Domingo denied harassing anyone and said he felt he had been convicted in the court of public opinion because he did not speak out.
READ MORE:
- Placido Domingo performs in Spain for the first time since 2019 when sexual misbehaviour allegations first surfaced in America
- Disgraced Spanish opera icon Placido Domingo, 79, tests positive for coronavirus
