For Placido Domingo fans, THE YOUNG DOMINGO serves up more than enough satisfying fare. These two disks contain not only the entirety of three opera aria recordings made by Domingo from 1969 (the year following his triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera) to 1973. They also include two Ruggero Leoncavallo selections that were originally a part of Domingo's recording of 'I Pagliacci' and (most exciting) "Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Jules Massenet's 'Werther;' a recording that never made it to the original LP for reasons of space. In the 1969 liner notes to 'Romantic Aria,' the earliest of the three recordings included on this disk, Richard Mohr wrote that Domingo, as a child, "began to dream of being a conductor, an ambition that still haunts him." In recent years, Domingo has moved in the direction of fulfilling that dream, conducting more and singing less. It seems appropriate, then, to begin looking back and taking stock of his remarkable career. While Domingo has kept much of his inimitable vocal luster over the past thirty years, the selections on this disk capture Domingo in his youthful bloom and testify to why he electrified the operatic community when he first came on the scene.
