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Placido Domingo: My Voice Is a Jealous Woman

Still singing strongly as his 70th birthday approaches Jan. 21, Placido Domingo has a very complicated relationship with his voice. He spoke to the critics via satellite from Madrid's Teatro Real.

Still singing strongly as his 70th birthday approaches Jan. 21, Placido Domingo has a very complicated relationship with his voice. He spoke to the critics via satellite from Madrid's Teatro Real.

"I have been lucky that my voice has been very generous to me. I tell you, you have to take care of the voice. I mean, I always say that the voice is like a relation with a very, very, very jealous woman, you know. She demands everything. She wants everything, and you just have to give her everything. And if you treat her well, she reacts, and then she's happy, and makes you happy, and makes me, make happy the people.

After 50 years of performing everywhere in the world, Domingo still has an adorable Spanish accent even if he is the director of the Los Angeles Opera

Domingo selected Vienna's Weinstadt Opera, the Metropolitan in New York, La Scala in Milan and London's Covent Garden as the best opera houses in the world. "I think those are like the grand slam if we were talking of the tennis," he said.

Domingo comes from a musical family, and his first musical memory, of his father singing zarzuela, a Spanish form of operetta,  is a formidable one:

"Here in Madrid, I remember my father dressed with tails, and there is a very famous zarzuela that is called 'La Gran Via' ... and this gentleman is a very elegant gentleman, and that he drives crazy the ladies, and he's with the frock. And I see my father singing that."

Don't look for any resurrection of the beloved Three Tenors. There will never be a substitute for Luciano Pavarotti, who died three years ago. "I can sing in a group of four or five people, but three tenors, I promised myself, since we lost Luciano," said Domingo, "and I promised to Jose [Carreras, the third tenor], and he did the same to me — we were never going to be three tenors singing together."

"Placido Domingo: My Favorite Performances" will appear on PBS's Great Performances sometime this year.