Placido Domingo in Pagliacci

Placido Domingo as Canio in Pagliacci

This portrait was made backstage at the John F. Kennedy Center during the dress rehearsal of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. I had photographed Plácido Domingo in several roles prior to this session but he was so quiet and subdued on this occasion that I thought perhaps I had offended him. It was not until I photographed him in the next costume that I realized that he was totally consumed in the role he was playing.  This photograph was selected as the DVD cover for the Washington National Opera's upcoming release of Volume Four of Plácido's "My Greatest Roles." 

Plácido was accompanied by Verónica Villarroel as Nedda, Gregory Yurisich as Tonio, Manuel Lanza as Silvio, and David Cangelosi as Beppe.  The performance's opera orchestra and chorus were conducted by Leonard Slotkin; the Director and Scene Designer  was Franco Zeffirelli.

An enlargement of this image was also printed sixty by sixty inches to hang in the lobby of the Washington National Opera's headquarters.