#METOO CLAIMS BLAST PLACIDO
Opera legend Placido Domingo allegedly sexually harassed multiple women over at least three decades — pressuring them into trysts and sometimes hurting them professionally when they spurned his advances, according to a report Tuesday.
Eight singers and a dancer said they were victims of the longmarried tenor’s harassment, including inappropriate touching, unwanted kissing and sexually suggestive overtures, beginning in the late 1980s, according to the bombshell Associated Press report.
“I felt like prey. I felt like I was being hunted by him,” one of the women said.
Following the explosive story’s publication, the Philadelphia Orchestra announced it had rescinded an invitation for Domingo, 78, to perform at its opening-night gala next month.
The Los Angeles Opera said outside counsel would investigate the allegations against Domingo, who has been the general director there since 2003.
Known as one of the Three Tenors, alongside Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, Domingo is one of the most influential and respected figures in opera. The Spaniard’s alleged victims say he used his power to pursue them sexually, including at opera companies where he held a top managerial position.
Seven of the nine accusers said their careers were harmed when they rejected his advances.
Two of the women said they eventually gave in to Domingo, with one accuser claiming that he left her $10 after one of the two times they had sex.
“I don’t want you to feel like a prostitute, but I also don’t want you to have to pay to park,” she said he told her.
Mezzo-soprano Patricia Wulf, now 61 and the only accuser willing to be identified, says the Grammy winner never touched her but constantly pressed her for sex — to the point that she would hide in her dressing room to avoid him and asked a colleague to walk her to her car in case he ambushed her.
“It affected the way I dealt with men for the rest of my operatic career and the rest of my life,” she said, adding that she didn’t report him because, “They’re not going to fire him — they’ll fire me.”
Another accuser said Domingo — who has been married to Marta Ornelas since 1962 — stuck his hand down her skirt.
Three others said he forced wet kisses on their lips — in a dressing room, a hotel room and at a lunch meeting.
“He was always touching you in some way and always kissing you,” one of the singers said.
A mezzo-soprano who worked at the LA Opera but is not among the accusers said, “There is an oral tradition of warning women against Placido Domingo.”
She echoed advice several women said they had received: “Avoid interaction with him at all costs. And definitely don’t be alone with him.”
Domingo, in a statement, called the allegations “deeply troubling and as presented inaccurate.”
“I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual,” he added.
He said he would never “intentionally harm, offend or embarrass anyone.”
“However, I recognize that the rules and standards by which we are — and should be — measured against today are very different than they were in the past,” he said, insisting he will “hold myself to the highest standards.”