Placido Domingo to sing at World Cup final
Placido Domingo will sing before a World Cup final for the sixth time, announcing Wednesday he will perform at Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena on July 11.
The concert featuring the 73-year-old classic musical star will take place on the eve of the final at Maracana Stadium. The show also is scheduled to include pianist Lang Lang, soprano Ana Maria Martinez, conductor Eugene Kohn and the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira.
Domingo has attended every World Cup since 1974 and sang the 1982 theme song in Spain, "El Mundial."
He joined Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras at the Rome's Baths of Caracalla in 1990 to form The Three Tenors. They returned in 1994 at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, in 1998 at Paris' Champ de Mars and Eiffel Tower and in 2002 at Japan's Yokohama Arena.
Pavarotti retired from staged opera two years later and sang publicly for the last time at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Before the 2006 World Cup final, Domingo was joined by soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazon for a concert at Berlin's Waldbuehne.
Domingo didn't have a concert before the 2010 World Cup final in Johannesburg; he was in the middle of a run of Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" at The Royal Opera in London. But he traveled to South Africa for the final between performances and celebrated with players from his native Spain after it beat the Netherlands 1-0 for its first world title.
He remains active on opera stages, increasingly in baritone rather than tenor roles, and has been general director of the Los Angeles Opera since 2003.
Jennifer Lopez will perform the official World Cup tune, "We Are One (Ole Ola)," alongside Pitbull and Claudia Leitte before Brazil takes on Croatia at Thursday's opening game in Sao Paulo.