Vocal folds

The vocal folds, also known popularly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx. They vibrate, modulating the flow of air being expelled from the lungs during phonation.
Open during inhalation, closed when holding one's breath, and vibrating for speech or singing (opening and closing 440 times per second when singing A above middle C); the folds are controlled via the vagus nerve. They are white because of scant blood circulation.

The larynx is a major (but not the only) source of sound in speech, generating sound through the rhythmic opening and closing of the vocal folds. To oscillate, the vocal folds are brought near enough together such that air pressure builds up beneath the larynx. The folds are pushed apart by this increased subglottal pressure, with the inferior part of each fold leading the superior part. The natural resilience of the folds brings them back together. Under the correct conditions, this oscillation pattern will sustain itself. In essence, sound is generated in the larynx by chopping up a steady flow of air into little puffs.
The pitch of a person's voice is a [percept] that is determined by a number of different factors, but largely by the fundamental frequency of the sound generated by the larynx. A person's natural fundamental frequency is influenced by many factors, including the length, size, and tension of the vocal folds. In an adult male, this frequency averages about 125 Hz, adult females around 210 Hz, in children the frequency is over 300 Hz.

Men and women have different vocal fold sizes. Adult male voices are usually lower pitched and have larger folds. The male vocal folds (which would be measured vertically in the opposite diagram), are between 17 mm and 25 mm in length.
Matching the female body, which on the whole has less muscle than the male, females have smaller folds. The female vocal folds are between 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm in length.
The folds are located just above the trachea or the windpipe which travels from the lungs. Food and drink does not pass through the folds but is instead taken through the esophagus, an unlinked tube. Both tubes are separated by the tongue and an automatic gag reflex. When food goes down through the folds and trachea it causes choking.
Folds in both sexes are ligaments within the larynx. They are attached at the back (side nearest the spinal cord) to the arytenoid cartilages, and at the front (side under the chin) to the thyroid cartilage. Their outer edges (as shown in the illustration) are attached to muscle in the larynx while their inner edges, or margins are free (the hole). They are constructed from epithelium, but they have a few muscle fibres on them, namely the vocalis muscle which tightens the front part of the ligament near to the thyroid cartilage. They are flat triangular bands and are pearly white in colour - whiter in females than they are in males. Above both sides of the vocal cord (the hole and the ligament itself) is the vestibular fold or false vocal fold, which has a small sac between its two folds (not illustrated).
The difference in vocal fold size between men and women means that they have differently pitched voices. Additionally, genetics also causes variances amongst the same sex, with men's and women's voices being categorised into types.
The term vocal cords is occasionally misspelled 'vocal chords', possibly due to the musical connotations or to confusion with the geometrical definition of the word "chord".

The vocal folds discussed above are sometimes called 'true vocal folds' to distinguish them from the false vocal folds. These are a pair of thick folds of mucous membrane that sit just above, and protect, the more delicate true folds. They have minimal role in normal phonation, but are often used in screaming and the death grunt singing style.
The false folds are also called vestibular folds and ventricular folds. They can be seen on the diagram above as ventricular folds.
False vocal folds, when surgically removed, can regenerate completely.

Puccini: La Bohème I.

Henri Murger stories: Scènes de la Vie de Bohème (1846)

Henri Murger (b. Paris 1822; d. Paris 1861) was a French novelist, who served for a while as secretary to the Russian novelist, poet and dramatist Count Aleksey Tolstoy (not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy!), and who was among the first artists to depict the Bohemian lifestyle.
He began writing poems depicting Bohemian life in Paris, and himself became part of the world. He lived in poverty and with poor health. His Scenes of the Bohemian Life were written and published as a series of separate episodes over the period 1847-49, in which the writer himself featured as Rodolphe.

The Librettists of Puccini's La Bohème
Puccini's partnership with the playwright/librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa was one of the most successful in the whole history of Italian opera -- a meeting of great artistic minds akin to Verdi's association with Boito and Bellini's with Romani. Although Illica and Giacosa are best remembered for their work with Puccini, each had an active career of his own.
Luigi Illica (1857-1919)

Luigi Illica had a rough beginning: at an early age he ran away to sea and in 1876 he found himself fighting the Turks. Three years later, however, he moved to the relatively peaceful enclave of Milan Italy and there began his literary career. In 1882 he produced a collection of prose sketches, Farfalle, effetti di luce, and the following year wrote his first play, I Narbonnier-Latour. His greatest success in this field of playwriting was a comedy in Milanese dialect, L'eriditaa di Felis (1891).
He began writing librettos in 1889. While his work on three of Puccini's operas is recognized as his chief contribution to the field, he also wrote librettos for several other composers, including those for Giordano's Andrea Chenier (1896--the same year as La Bohème), an opera still popular and performed today, and two operas of Mascagni.
Giuseppe Giacosa (1847-1906)

Giuseppe Giacosa began his professional life, not as a writer, but as a lawyer. He graduated in law from Turin University and immediately joined his father's firm in Milan. He moved permanently into the literary world, however, when his one-act verse comedy, Una partita a scacchi, became a popular success. From 1888-1894 Giacosa held the chair of literature and dramatic art at the Milan Conservatory.
The Puccini/Illica/Giacosa partnership was organized by the publisher Giulio Ricordi in 1893. The head of the most powerful publishing firm in Italy during the 19th century, Ricordi had the ability to make or break any young composer who came along, much in the same way that a CEO of a major record label can do today.
Having taken Puccini under his wing, Ricordi was intent on hiring the best writers to work with the young composer on his La Bohème -- he found them in Illica and Giacosa. The three had a very clear division of responsibilities when working together: it was Illica's job to plan the scenario (i.e. the opera's plan, and division into acts and scenes) and to draft the dialogue; next, Giacosa transformed the prose into polished verse; finally Puccini set this verse to music. This collaboration was such a success that the three worked together (dividing the responsibilities in the same way) on two other operas: Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904).
The collaboration ended with the death of Giacosa in 1906. Puccini continued to discuss the idea of translating the story of Marie Antoinette into an operatic setting with Illica, but this project never came to fruition. For his final operas, Puccini turned to other librettists.

A Selection from Puccini's letters

November 20, 1900 To Giulio Ricordi
... The more I think of Butterfly the more irresistibly am I attracted. Oh, if only had it here, that I might set to work on it! I think instead of one act I could make two quite long ones: the first in North America and the second in Japan. Illica could certainly find in the novel everything that is wanted.
I do not understand how Mr Maxwell [Ricordi' representative in New York] has still not answered.

April 23, 1902 To Giulio Ricordi
My dear Signor Giulio,And so, Hosanna! We must shout it open-throated (if it is true)! I awaited the arrival of the fruit of the great travail, part of a toilsome structure whose completion is still remote. For my part, I am laying stone on stone and doing my best to make Mr F.B. Pinkerton sing like an American.
... Illica writes me to interview that Japanese [actress] Sada Jacco. If you think it worth while I could take a run over to Milan when she comes. But an interpreter will be necessary; she is sure to speak some European language. Please put me down for two shares in the Scala.
May 3, 1902 To Giulio Ricordi
...I am working (and glad of it) at Act I, and am getting on well. I have composed the passage for the entry of Butterfly, and I am pleased with it
Apart from the fact that they are slightly Italian in character, both the music and the whole scene of this entry are very effective. I am going slowly, as usual, but working carefully and with deliberation.
[no date] To Giulio Ricordi
My dear Signor Giulio, I have had a visit today from Mme Oyama, wife of the Japanese Ambassador. She told me many interesting things and sang some native songs to me. She has promised to send me some native Japanese music. I sketched the story of the libretto for her, and she liked it, especially as just such a story as Butterfly's is known to her as having happened in real life.
She does not approve of the name Yamadori, on the ground that it is feminine and otherwise not appropriate; because in Japan they are accustomed in their plays to use names which suggest, or are suitable to, the various types and characters. The uncle's name of Yaxonpidè is wrong too. Similarly the names Sarundpiko, Izaghi, Sganami, etc. are all wrong. Mme Oyama is at Viareggio, where I shall go to see her and takes notes of what she sings to me, She is very intelligent and, although plain, is attractive.
[no date] To Giulio Ricordi
... The wife of the Japanese Ambassador has called upon me again several times. She has written to Tokyo for some folk songs, but it will be three months before I can have them! They will be useful for the other scenes.
November 16, 1902 To Giulio Ricordi
My dear Signor Giulio, For two days I have been in an absolutely miserable state of mind. Why? Because the libretto, as it stands, is not good from the end of Act II onwards, and the realization of this has been very painful. Now, however, I am convinced that the opera must be in two acts! Don't be frightened!
The Consulate was a great mistake. The action must move forward to the close without interruption, rapid, effective, terrible! In arranging the opera in three acts I was making for certain disaster. You will see, dear Signor Giulio, that I am right.
[no date] To Giulio Ricordi
... If you only knew how I am racking my brains! The work to be done is not great, but it is essential to bind the whole story together with a closer logic than there is in Belasco's play.
February 17, 1904 [the day of the first performance at La Scala] To Rosina Storchio [the soprano who sang the part Cio-Cio-San]
Dear Rosina, My good wishes are superfluous! So true, so delicate, so moving is your great art that the public must succumb to it. And I hope that through you I am speeding to victory. Tonight then - with sure confidence and much affection, dear child.
[After the disastrous performance, Rosina Strochio swore that she would never sing Madama Butterfly again in Italy]
February 22, 1904 To Rosina Storchio
... And so, my Butterfly, the love-sick maiden, would leave me. You seem in your departure to be taking away the best, the most poetical part of my work. I think that Butterfly without Rosina Storchio becomes a thing without soul. What a shame! After so many anxious fears, after pouring out such riches of your keen and delicate intelligence, to receive the reward of brutality. What a disgrace it was! But I am sure that this horrible impression will soon be wiped out of our minds, and so, with warm affection and confidence in the future, I wish you good luck.
May 4, 1904
Dear Rosina [Storchio] I leave here today for Brescia. May God give me good fortune. I think of you so much. I am always seeing you in your charming presentment of Butterfly and hearing again the sweet little voice which has such a sure way to the heart.
June 11, 1904 To his sister Dide
Dear Dide,It went exactly as I had wished: a real and unqualified triumph; the success is greater every evening.
November 14, 1906To his sister Nitteti
... Butterfly continues her triumphal career: Washington, Baltimore, Boston, and yesterday New York - always in English. In January I am going to New York for Manon [by Massent], Butterfly, Tosca, and then Butterfly in Italian at another theater, the great Metropolitan.
But first I shall return to Italy if only for a few days. I have to come, besides, for clothes. I must get a fur-lined coat because it is very cold in New York.

Giacomo Puccini

Puccini was born in Lucca in Tuscany, Italy into a family with five generations of musical history behind them. His father died when he was five years old, and he was sent to study with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student. Later, Puccini took the position of church organist and choir master in Lucca, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer. He and a friend walked 18.5 mi (30 km) to see the performance in Pisa.
In 1880, with the help of a relative and a grant, Puccini enrolled in the Milan Conservatory to study composition with Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini. In the same year, at the age of 21, he composed the Messa, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca. Although Puccini himself correctly titled the work a Messa, referring to a setting of the full Catholic Mass, today the work is popularly known as his Messa di Gloria, a name that technically refers to a setting of only the first two prayers of the Mass, the Kyrie and the Gloria, while omitting the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei. Puccini's work is, in fact, a Messa.
The work anticipates Puccini's career as an operatic composer by offering glimpses of the dramatic power that he would soon unleash on the stage; the powerful “arias” for tenor and bass soloists are certainly more operatic than is usual in church music and, in its orchestration and dramatic power, the Messa compares interestingly with Verdi's Requiem.
While studying at the Conservatory, Puccini obtained a libretto from Ferdinando Fontana and entered a competition for a one-act opera in 1882. Although he did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 at the Teatro Dal Verme and it caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, who commissioned a second opera, Edgar, in 1889. Puccini and Fontana were to become life-long friends.

From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent more of his time at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca situated between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio. While renting a house there, he spent time hunting but regularly visited Lucca. By 1900 he had acquired land and built a villa on the lake, now known as the "Villa Museo Puccini". He lived there until 1921 when pollution produced by peat works on the lake forced him to move to Viareggio, a few kilometres north. After his death, a mausoleum was created in the Villa Puccini and the composer is buried there in the chapel, along with his wife and son who died later.
The "Villa Museo Puccini" is presently owned by his granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini, and is open to the public.

Operas written at Torre del Lago
Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, was his first great success. It launched his remarkable relationship with the librettests Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, who collaborated with him on his next three operas, which became his three most famous and most performed operas. These were:
La bohème (1896) is considered one of his best works as well as one of the most romantic operas ever composed. It is arguably today's most popular opera.
Tosca (1900) was arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. The opera is generally considered of major importance in the history of opera because of its many significant features.
Madama Butterfly (1904) was initially greeted with great hostility (mostly organised by his rivals) but, after some reworking, became another of his most successful operas.
After 1904, compositions were less frequent. Following his passion for driving fast cars, Puccini was nearly killed in a major accident in 1903. In 1906 Giacosa died and, in 1909, there was scandal after Puccini's wife, Elvira, falsely accused their maid Doria Manfredi of having an affair with Puccini. The maid then committed suicide. Elvira was successfully sued by the Manfredis, and Giacomo had to pay damages. Finally, in 1912, the death of Giulio Ricordi, Puccini’s editor and publisher, ended a productive period of his career.
However, Puccini completed La fanciulla del West in 1910 and finished the score of La rondine in 1917, a piece he reworked from an operetta he had attempted to compose, only to find that his style and talent were incompatible with the genre.
In 1918, Il Trittico premiered in New York. This work is composed of three one-act operas: a horrific episode (Il Tabarro), in the style of the Parisian Grand Guignol, a sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica), and a comedy (Gianni Schicchi). Of the three, Gianni Schicchi has remained the most popular, containing the popular O mio babbino caro.

habitual cigarette chain smoker, Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental radiation therapy treatment, which was being offered in Brussels, Belgium. Puccini and his wife never knew how serious the cancer was, as the news was only revealed to his son.
Puccini died there on November 29, 1924 from complications from the treatment; uncontrolled bleeding led to a heart attack the day after surgery. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème. The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March for the stunned audience. He was buried in Milan, but in 1926 his son arranged for the transfer of his father's remains to a specially-created chapel inside the Puccini villa at Torre del Lago.
Turandot, his final opera, was left unfinished and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches. Some dispute whether Alfano followed the sketches or not, since the sketches were said to be indecipherable, but he is believed to have done so, since, together with the autographs, he was given (still existing) transcriptions from Guido Zuccoli who was accustomed to interpreting Puccini's handiwork.
When Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere performance in April 1926, (in front of a sold-out crowd with every prominent Italian with the exception of Benito Mussolini in attendance), he had chosen not to perform Alfano's portion of the score. The performance reached the point where Puccini had completed the score, at which time Toscanini stopped the orchestra. The conductor turned to the audience and said: "Here the opera finishes, because at this point the Maestro died". (Some record that he said, more poetically, “Here the Maestro laid down his pen.”).
In 2001 an official new ending was composed by Luciano Berio from original sketches, but this finale is performed infrequently.

Plácido Domingo

José Plácido Domingo Embil KBE (born January 21, 1941), better known as Plácido Domingo, is a world-renowned operatic tenor. He is known for his versatile and strong voice that possesses a ringing and clear tone throughout its range. He is also admired for his operatic acting ability, his keen musical intellect, and the impressive number and variety of opera roles that he has mastered. In addition to his singing roles, he has also taken on conducting opera and concert performances, as well as serving as the General Director of the Washington National Opera in Washington, DC and the Los Angeles Opera in California.

Plácido Domingo was born in the Barrio de Salamanca section of Madrid, Spain, and moved to Mexico at age 8 with his family, who ran a zarzuela company. In Mexico City he studied music at the National Conservatory. He provided backup vocals for Los Black Jeans in 1958, a rock-and-roll band lead by César Costa. He learned piano and conducting, but made his stage debut acting in a minor role in 1959 (May 12) at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara as Pascual in Marina. It was followed by Borsa in Rigoletto (with Cornell MacNeil and Norman Treigle also in the cast), Padre Confessor (Le dialogue des Carmelites) and others. He made his operatic debut acting as a leading role at Monterrey as Alfredo in La Traviata and then in 1962 spent 2 and a half years with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, singing 280 performances of 12 different roles.
On September 19, 1985, the biggest earthquake in Mexico's history devastated the whole Mexican capital. Domingo's aunt, uncle, his nephew and his nephew’s young son were killed in the collapse of the Nuevo León apartment block in the Tlatelolco housing complex. Domingo himself labored to rescue survivors. During the next year, he did benefit concerts for the victims and released an album of one of the events.
In what has been called his 'final career move', Placido Domingo announced on January 25, 2007 that in 2009 he would switch ranges to baritone by taking on one of Verdi's most demanding baritone roles, as the Doge of Genoa, Simon Boccanegra, in the opera of the same name.

In 1966, he sang the title role in the US premiere of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera, with much acclaim. He first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on September 28, 1968, in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, singing with Renata Tebaldi. (Since then, he has opened the season there 21 times, surpassing the previous record of Enrico Caruso by four.) He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968, at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in 1969, and at Covent Garden in 1971, and has now sung at practically every other important opera house and festival worldwide.
Perhaps the most versatile of all living tenors, Domingo has sung 124 roles onstage to date (and as many as 128 roles when also counting recorded roles), ranging from Mozart to Ginastera. His main repertoire however is Italian (Otello, Il Trovatore, Don Carlo), French (Faust, Werther, Don José in Carmen, Samson in Samson et Dalila), and German (Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Siegmund in Die Walküre). He continues to add more operas to his repertoire, such as recently Tan Dun's The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Throughout the years, Domingo has also turned his hand to conducting opera (as early as La Traviata on October 7, 1973, at New York City Opera) as well as, occasionally, symphonic orchestras.
On July 30, 1991, he performed in Otello, Verdi's operatic version of Shakespeare's Othello, as the Moor of Venice in Vienna. After 101 curtain calls, the applause had lasted 80 minutes non-stop - a world record.
In 1981 Domingo gained considerable recognition outside of the opera world when he recorded the song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with the late American country/folk music singer John Denver. In 1987, he and Denver joined Julie Andrews for an Emmy Award winning holiday television special, The Sound of Christmas, filmed in Salzburg, Austria.
In 1993 he also founded Operalia, an important international competition for young opera singers.
He is the General Director of two opera companies, the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. His contracts in both Los Angeles and Washington DC have been extended through the 2010–2011 season.
Domingo has been instrumental in giving many young artists encouragement, (and special attention) as in 2001, when he invited New York tenor, Daniel Rodriguez to attend the Vilar/Domingo Young Artists program to further develop his operatic skills.
Domingo supports the Hear the World initiative as an ambassador to raise awareness for the topic of hearing and hearing loss.


Giving him even greater international recognition outside of the world of opera, with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, he participated in The Three Tenors concert at the opening of the 1990 World Cup in Rome. The event was originally conceived to raise money for the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation and was later repeated a number of times, including at the three subsequent World Cup finals (1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama). Alone, Domingo again made an appearance at the final of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin.

He has made well over 100 recordings, most of which are full-length operas, often recording the same role more than once. Among these recordings is a boxed set of every tenor aria Verdi ever wrote, including several rarely-performed versions, in different languages from the original operas, which Verdi wrote for specific performances.
In August 2005, EMI Classics released a new studio recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in which Domingo sings the title role of Tristan. A review of this recording, headlined "Vocal perfections", that appeared in the August 8, 2005 issue of The Economist begins with the word "Monumental" and ends with the words, "a musical lyricism and a sexual passion that make the cost and the effort entirely worthwhile". It characterized his July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre at Covent Garden as "unforgettable" and "luminous". The review also remarks that Domingo is still taking on roles that he has not previously performed.
New recordings that have been released in the first half of 2006 include studio recordings of Puccini's Edgar, Isaac Albéniz's Pepita Jiménez, as well as a selection of Italian and Neapolitan songs, titled Italia ti amo (all three with Deutsche Grammophon).
Amongst many television appearance in many countries over the years (a large number for charitable purposes), Domingo appeared as the star act in the New Orleans Opera Association's A Night For New Orleans with Frederica von Stade and Elizabeth Futral, in March 2006. The concert was to raise funds for the rebuilding of the city.



Domingo has received numerous awards and honors, including:

Grammy Award
1971 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for Verdi: Aida
1974 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for G. Puccini: La Bohème
1983 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for Verdi: La Traviata
1984 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for Bizet: Carmen
1984 - Best Latin Pop Performance for Always in my Heart (Siempre en mi corazon)
1988 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for Wagner: Lohengrin
1990 - Best Classical Vocal Performance for Carreras-Domingo-Pavarotti in Concert
1992 - Principal Soloist for Best Opera Recording for Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten
2000 - Best Mexican-American Performance for 100 years of Mariachi

Latin Grammy Award
2000 - Best Classical Album for T. Breton: La Dolores
2001 - Best Classical Album for I. Albéniz: Merlin

Government and organization honors
France
Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur
Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
Commandeur Arts et Lettres
Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris
Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur – March 2002
Spain
Isabel la Católica
Premio Prinicipe de Asturias de las Artes - 1991
Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil – September 2002
USA
Kennedy Center Honors – December 2000
The presendential Medal of Freedom – July 2002
Austria
Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst 1. Klasse
Kammersänger und Ehrenmitglied der Wiener Staatsoper
Goldenes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien – 2007
Other countries
Aguila Azteca (Mexico)
Capo dell’Ordine "Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana" Grande Ufficiale (Italy)
Grã Cruz da Ordem do Infante d’Henrique (Portugal)
Cavalliere di Malta (Malta)
Knight Commander of the British Empire (Great Britain) – October 2002
Order of the Cedars (Lebanon) - 2004
NPO
Unicef Socio de Honor (UNICEF)

Honorary Doctorate
Royal Northern College of Music, England (1982)
Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, USA (1982)
Oklahoma City University, USA (1984)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (1989)
University of New York, USA (1990)
Georgetown University, USA (1992)
Washington College of Chestertown, USA (2000)
Anáhuac University, Mexico (2001)
Chopin Music Academy, Poland (2003)
Oxford University, England (2003)

Other entertainment awards and appreciation
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – 1993 (Location: Domingo, Placido LT 7000 Hollywood Blvd)
Sociedad General de Autores Española (Best Lyric Singer of the Year 1997) for his role in the world premiere of "Divinas Palabras" - 1997
Association of Argentinian Music Critics (Best Male Singer in 1997) for “Samson and Dalila" - 1997
Baltika Grand Prix for Outstanding Achievement - June 1998
American Latina Media Arts (ALMA) Awards (Outstanding Performances By An Individual or Act in A Variety) - 1998
Hispanic Heritage Award for Arts - September 1999
Great Prize of the International Music Press - September 2000
The Ella Award - 2002
Classical BRIT Awards - 2006 (Critics' Award for Tristan and Isolde and Lifetime Achievement Award)
Others
On August 21, 2007, as recognition to his support to 1985 Mexico City earthquake victims as well as his artistic works, a statue in his honor, made in Mexico City from keys donated by the people, was unveiled. The statue is the work of Alejandra Zúñiga, is two meters tall, weighs about 300 kg (660 lbs) and is part of the "Grandes valores" (Great values) program.

Montserrat Caballé

Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folc, better known as Montserrat Caballé (born April 12, 1933), is a Spanish operatic soprano renowned for her bel canto technique and her interpretations of the roles of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.

Caballé was born in Barcelona. After studying music at the Liceu Conservatory and singing technique under Eugenia Kemmeny, she was awarded with the gold medal; then she joined the Basel Opera in 1956, where she made her professional operatic debut in 1957 as Mimì in La bohème. For the 1960–61 season, she was engaged by the Bremen Opera, where she developed the foundations of her wide repertoire. In 1962 Caballé returned to Barcelona and made her debut at the Liceu, singing the title-role in Richard Strauss' Arabella.

Caballé's international breakthrough came in 1965 when she substituted for an indisposed Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall. While she had to learn the role in less than one month, and considering this was her first engagement in a bel canto score, her performance created a sensation and made her famous throughout the opera world. The day after the New York Times quoted "Callas + Tebaldi = Caballé". Later that year, Caballé made her debut at Glyndebourne singing her first Rosenkavalier and at the Metropolitan Opera as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. In December 1965 she also returned to Carnegie Hall for her second bel canto opera, singing the tremendous part of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's recently rediscovered Roberto Devereux.
In 1966 she made her debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Trovatore (and Pirata in 1967). In 1969 she produced an astonishing performance as Elisabetta of Valois in an all-star cast (including Domingo and Cappuccilli) of Don Carlo at the Arena di Verona. Her A (La) on the final "ah" at the very end of the opera has become famous, lasting for more than 20 bars up to the final accord from the orchestra, driving mad an audience of more than 10.000. In these performances she had to act on crutches because an accident occurred earlier that year in New York City. In the same period she also appeared in one of the most remarkable recitals of her career at the Teatro Corallo, also in Verona.
In 1970, she made her delayed "official" La Scala debut in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and in 1972 her Covent Garden debut as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata. 1974 was probably the year when Caballé reached her peak, with a number of astonishing performances: Aida at Liceu in January, Vespri at the Met in March, Parisina d'Este at Carnegie Hall in March, 3 Normas in one week at the Bolshoi in Moscow, with Adriana Lecouvreur at La Scala in April, Norma in Orange in July (her top single performance, filmed in video by Pierre Jourdain), the recording of Aida under Muti in July, and the Duets recording with Giuseppe di Stefano in August.
In September she underwent major surgery to remove a huge but benign tumoral mass from her abdomen. She recovered quite well and was again on stage for Norma in early 1975.
Having lost some of her earlier brilliance and purity of voice, Caballé made up for it finding a more dramatic utterance and expresive singing in roles that demanded it. Thus, in 1978, another great year in her career, she sung a magnificent Tosca in San Francisco, with Pavarotti, and in Madrid a sublime Norma. A video exists of this performance, for some even better than her legendary one in Orange.

Although best known for her bel canto roles, Caballé eventually sang over eighty operatic roles, from baroque opera to Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini, including the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and the title role in Salome.
Caballé is also a noted recitalist, particularly of songs of her native Spain.
Her voice is noted for its purity, precise control, and power. She is admired less for her dramatic instincts and acting skills than for her superb technique, vocal shadings, and exquisite pianissimos, which were inspired by Miguel Fleta. Caballe is one of the most exemplary examples of the preservation of the Ancient Vocal Method.

Caballe is notable in that she recorded both the title role in Bellini's opera Norma (for RCA in the 1970s) and later the role of Adalgisa (to Joan Sutherland's Norma) in the 1980s studio recording conducted by Sutherland's husband Richard Bonynge (for DECCA), a feat not equaled by any other soprano on record. Caballe's performance as Adalgisa is the only one yet to have a soprano in that role - it helps her sound very youthful compared to other singers on disc and is maybe the finest of her 1980s recordings, a triumph for a soprano well into middle age at the time.
The result of one of her brief excursions to the world of pop music, Caballé's duet with rock singer Freddie Mercury of Queen, "Barcelona," was a hit single in 1988, accompanied by an album of the same name. The title track later became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics which was hosted by the city, and appeared again in the pop music charts throughout Europe. Caballé also performed the song live, accompanied by a recording of the deceased Mercury, before the 1999 UEFA Champions League football final in Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium.
Caballé has dedicated herself to various charities. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and she has established a foundation for needy children in Barcelona.
Caballé does not appear to have retired from the stage. She continues to assume new roles: in 2002, Catherine of Aragon in Saint-Saëns's Henri VIII; in 2004, the title role in Massenet's Cléopâtre, both at the Liceu. At the age of 73 (2006), she still maintains a busy schedule of recitals and concerts, mainly in Germany. She has appeared as The Duchess of Crackentorp in La fille du régiment at the Vienna State Opera in april 2007.
Caballé married the tenor Bernabé Martí in 1964. Her daughter, Montserrat Martí (Montsita), is also a soprano and the two occasionally perform together.