Big to-do over opera award

Is tenor Placido Domingo in a snit? That’s what London’s Evening Standard suggested when it ran an account Monday that the great Spanish tenor had refused to accept a prestigious opera award given by the London-based Amici di Verdi “apparently because the other two of the Three Tenors, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, have received theirs first.”

Amici founder Reg Suter said Thursday that Domingo had agreed to accept the award in 2000, but since then “we’ve not had a word back from him” despite repeated attempts to reach him. “I have no idea why I’ve haven’t heard from him at all.”

Domingo, in Verona, Italy, said through his publicist, Nancy Seltzer, that he was “astonished to read such fiction. I was honored when they offered it, a long time ago, and I happily said yes. I regard it highly. But I hadn’t heard from anybody until recently, when my schedule prohibits finding a time to accept it.”

Amici di Verdi is a charitable organization devoted to the music of Verdi. It primarily gives financial assistance to young singers. Each year it also gives a medal to a person it regards as having done special service to the music of Verdi.

The plan was to give each of the Three Tenors an award at the same time, Suter said, but because of their schedules that wouldn’t work.

Carreras received his award in 2001 and Pavarotti in 2002.

-- Chris Pasles