Placido Domingo in ‘Nabucco’

Plácido Domingo will sing the title character in Verdi’s “Nabucco” for the first time at the Royal Opera in London next year.

The new production, announced Wednesday, will be the fourth new role for Domingo in a little more than a year, all baritone parts.

The 71-year-old general director of L.A. Opera, famous for his decades as a tenor, also is slated to make role debuts in Massenet’s “Thais” in March in Spain, Verdi’s “I Due Foscari” at Los Angeles in September, and Verdi’s “La Traviata” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera next March. He will appear in “Nabucco” in April 2013.

—associated press

CBS renews 18 shows for 2012-13

CBS has renewed 18 well-performing series for the 2012-13 season, including “The Big Bang Theory” and “CSI,” but there’s one noticeable exception: “Two and a Half Men.”

In total, four comedies, nine dramas, three reality series and two newsmagazines were named Wednesday to return.

In addition to “The Big Bang Theory,” other comedies that will be back are “How I Met Your Mother,” “Mike & Molly” and raunchy rookie comedy “2 Broke Girls.”

As for “Two and a Half Men,” CBS and Warner Bros. were said to be in “preliminary discussions” regarding its future.

Joining “CSI” on the drama side are “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Criminal Minds,” “Person of Interest,” “The Mentalist,” “Blue Bloods” and “The Good Wife.”

Among the reality series that got picked up are “The Amazing Race,” “Undercover Boss” and “Survivor.” Newsmagazines “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours” will also return for the fall.

Absent from the announcement are “Unforgettable,” “A Gifted Man,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York” — and, hey, what about “Rob”?

—Yvonne Villarreal

L.A. art display opens in Berlin

A primer on three decades of post-World War II art from Los Angeles, including iconic images from Ed Ruscha and David Hockney, abstract works by Sam Francis and conceptual pieces from the 1960s and 1970s, went on show Wednesday in Berlin.

The show, “Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles 1950-1980,” is one result of a mammoth project organized by the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Foundation. It stems from a decade of research into Southern California’s diverse art scene.

Dozens of exhibitions under the Pacific Standard Time banner opened in Southern California last year, but Berlin organizers said the show at the German capital’s Martin-Gropius-Bau is the only one in Europe.

—associated press

‘Yoshimi’ will debut in La Jolla

“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” a musical based on the Flaming Lips’ 2002 album of the same name, will make its debut this year at the La Jolla Playhouse, the theater company said Wednesday.

The premiere will be in either November or December, in a production directed by Des McAnuff, former artistic director at the venue.

Despite its title, “Yoshimi” will feature songs from a number of other albums by the Flaming Lips, including “The Soft Bulletin” and “At War With the Mystics,” the company said. The alternative rock band from Oklahoma City is led by Wayne Coyne.

“Yoshimi” has been in the works since at least 2007. Aaron Sorkin, the writer of TV’s “The West Wing” and the movie “The Social Network,” had previously been tapped to pen the book for the musical. But Wednesday’s announcement made no mention of him, citing McAnuff as the writer.

A spokeswoman for the La Jolla Playhouse did not respond to questions about Sorkin’s departure from the project.

—David Ng

Billboard’s new chart formula

Billboard, the publisher of the Hot 100 singles and other music charts, on Wednesday began incorporating spins from on-demand streams from services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Muve, MOG, Slacker and Rdio in determining which songs top its charts.

It also began publishing a new chart for top on-demand streaming tunes.

The change in the industry’s de facto hotness formula is a joint effort between the magazine, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems and the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers.

“With some of these services growing exponentially and integrating into the social Web, the time is right to launch a streaming chart and to incorporate this activity into the Hot 100,” said Bill Werde, Billboard’s editorial director.

Among the nuggets found in Nielsen’s data is that streaming activity decreased 17% in the week after Christmas, while digital download sales jumped 20% — presumably from people cashing in their iTunes and Amazon.com gift cards.

—Alex Pham