Placido Domingo anticipating his performance at Metropolitan Opera

PanARMENIAN.Net - With a career spanning half a century, Placido Domingo continues to be firmly against leaving the stage, where presently he is triumphing in his role as Oreste in the production of "Iphigenie en Tauride" that is being performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

"I don't want to set a retirement date for myself," the Spanish tenor said in an interview with Efe during one of the few free moments he has these days between rehearsals of the 18th-century opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on a tale from Euripides.

Domingo, who marked his 70th birthday last month with a "very emotional" celebration in Madrid, is clear about the fact that "as long as I'm healthy," the opera will continue to be his world.

"The opera is mine and it's for it that I get up every day," he says, adding that healthwise he feels "very good, thank God."

Domingo, who has recovered from the colon cancer for which he underwent surgery about a year ago, these days is reacquainting himself with the New York public after an absence of many months caused "not by the operation but by the schedule."

The acclaimed tenor speaks with affection of the Met, where he debuted in 1968 and where his last appearance before his operation was in "Simon Boccanegra," nearly a year ago.

"It's 42 seasons that I've been in this venue and I've never missed one. This time, it's been almost a year due to circumstances that have nothing to do with my operation, but here I am," Domingo said.

Many of his New York fans hope that if Domingo does decide to retire he waits until 2018, which would mark his "golden anniversary" with the Met.

"One never knows, it's a long time away. We have to go year to year, but the truth is that up to now I have plans through 2015-2016, and so it would only be two more years (until 2018)," he said with a big smile in the interview, at which he was accompanied by wife Marta and grandson Alvaro.

Despite his packed agenda, the secret to moving forward is - in Domingo's judgment - the support of the public which, year after year, continues giving him "great satisfaction," with endless rounds of applause and full theaters, something that is continuing at present in New York with "Iphigenie en Tauride."

This Feb 26 performance at the Met will be able to be viewed simultaneously live in theaters in more than 40 countries, including in many Latin American countries and in his native Spain.

"It gives me great pleasure to appear in the theaters in Spain. It's something stupendous to bring the stage in the great theaters to the movie houses. It's clear that film cannot compare with the theater, but it's a possibility for many people for whom the opera is tremendously expensive to little by little become fans," he said, latino.foxnews.com reports.