Placido Domingo in high spirits after release from hospital

Placido Domingo, who was hospitalized last week in Madrid, has been released and is in high spirits.

The 72-year-old opera star suffered a scare when he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism resulting from a deep venous thrombosis (basically a blocked blood vessel, which can result from a long plane flight). The clot had formed in his right leg and moved to his lungs, where it lodged in an artery.

Thanks to an early diagnosis, Domingo is expected to make a full recovery.

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The day after his release Saturday from the hospital, the singer attended a dress rehearsal of Daniel Catan’s “Il Postino” at Madrid’s Teatro Real, his spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, said. He was to have performed in the opera but had to cancel because of his lung problem.

Domingo used his time in the hospital to study “Giovanna d’Arco,” which he still hopes to sing in Salzburg, Seltzer said. He is also looking forward, she said, to keeping his engagements in Verona at “Operalia,” the opera competition he founded to help discover and foster young talent.

“I am very happy that I was released from the hospital yesterday and to be at home in Madrid for the next weeks with my family,” Domingo said in a statement issued Sunday. “At the same time, I am very disappointed not to be able to perform in my home city, but hopefully if my recovery goes well and I feel healthy, I can continue with my planned performance schedule next month.”

Domingo, who also is general director of Los Angeles Opera, had another health scare in 2010, when he underwent surgery for colon cancer.

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Placido Domingo is hospitalized in Madrid with pulmonary embolism