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Harassment claims inspire bold new work for upcoming opera season

Art Imitates Life Imitates Art...

“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”
“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”
“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”

“We were scrambling for a little while there,” says James “Silk Purse” Sowsear, Creative Director and House Composer at San Diego Opera. “There we were, thinking we’d scored a major coup: signing Placido Domingo himself to perform in next season’s scheduled showcase, Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. And then these eight women come forward with stories of experiencing sexual harassment at the hands of our star tenor. The optics were…not good. It was one thing when the Met fired James Levine for messing with young men. They’re the Met. They’ll be fine. But as everyone knows, opera in San Diego is barely hanging on. We couldn’t afford to pay Mr. Domingo his kill fee and hire someone else, and we sure as hell couldn’t go on with the show. But then, one of those cute little things we keep around the office to help out said that as long as people were referring to “the #MeToo era” as an era, it was probably a big enough deal to serve as an artistic subject. “Somebody should make a show about that,” she said. That’s when the light when on, and I realized: somebody should make a show about that. Inspiration is funny that way: you never know what will set it off. And best of all, we still had Domingo under contract! Think of the publicity! Now we just have to hope the matter doesn’t get settled between now and next Spring.”

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“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”
“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”
“Really, it’s both an honor and a pleasure to be able to write specifically for the voice of one of the all-time great tenors,” says composer Sowsear. “I’ve been listening to Placido Domingo since I was a child, and I can almost literally already hear him tearing into the outraged indignation of an aria such as ‘Inquietante e impreciso’ (‘Troubling and inaccurate’), or the self-pitying sorrow of ‘Era un’alta volta’ (‘It was another time’). And almost as importantly, I think the work will have real staying power: there’s a mythic force to it, a classic tragedy of a great man and great lover being undone in his old age, both physically and in his reputation. The chickens are coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m glad that these women went through what they did; I’m just saying that their suffering has not been in vain.”

“We were scrambling for a little while there,” says James “Silk Purse” Sowsear, Creative Director and House Composer at San Diego Opera. “There we were, thinking we’d scored a major coup: signing Placido Domingo himself to perform in next season’s scheduled showcase, Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. And then these eight women come forward with stories of experiencing sexual harassment at the hands of our star tenor. The optics were…not good. It was one thing when the Met fired James Levine for messing with young men. They’re the Met. They’ll be fine. But as everyone knows, opera in San Diego is barely hanging on. We couldn’t afford to pay Mr. Domingo his kill fee and hire someone else, and we sure as hell couldn’t go on with the show. But then, one of those cute little things we keep around the office to help out said that as long as people were referring to “the #MeToo era” as an era, it was probably a big enough deal to serve as an artistic subject. “Somebody should make a show about that,” she said. That’s when the light when on, and I realized: somebody should make a show about that. Inspiration is funny that way: you never know what will set it off. And best of all, we still had Domingo under contract! Think of the publicity! Now we just have to hope the matter doesn’t get settled between now and next Spring.”

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