This season of the Virtuosos classical music show, in which Maestro Plácido Domingo was a super-jury, has just ended and the Maestro now returns as the protagonist of a Virtuosos charity concert film, to honor the healthcare workers fighting against the pandemic.
This summer, a charity concert was held with Plácido Domingo and the Virtuosos in Győr, and a concert film has now been made out of it, which is available on the Virtuosos YouTube channel from December 25th .
The world-renowned Spanish-born opera star, Maestro Plácido Domingo sang and also conducted at this concert. In addition, his son, Plácido Domingo Jr. was also performing. The younger Plácido is a singer, composer, producer who writes songs for his father and many other world-famous singers, including big names like Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman, Diana Ross. He also composed the theme song of “Virtuosos V4 +”, which was conducted by his father at the concert. The concert also featured the internationally renowned soprano diva, Adela Zaharia, who won first place at the Operalia competition, founded by Maestro Domingo in 2017. She is currently a soloist at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. The piano soloist of the concert was the winner of the fourth season of Virtuosos, 17-year-old Balázs-Piri Soma, whose talent impressed Maestro Domingo so much, that he helped him buy a piano of his own with a donation. The guest conductor of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra was the American Eugene Kohn.
The concert featured evergreen hits, popular arias, musical and operetta duets, zarzuelas and the theme music of the Virtuosos. The special feature of the concert is that Maestro Plácido Domingo is usually not singing and conducting at the same concert.
The award-winning singers of the Operalia competition, founded by Maestro Plácido Domingo, have performed in Győr for several consecutive years. At the summer concert, ten thousand people were waiting for Maestro Domingo in the main square of Győr and in the surrounding streets, who thanked the warm welcome with a high-quality concert. The location in Győr was also important because the singer’s Hungarian manager, Nicholas Marko is from Lébény, went to school in Győr and has many connections to the city. The program was implemented with the support of the city of Győr.
THANK YOU TO THE HEALTHCARE WORKERS
At the press conference of the event, hosted by the Eiffel House in Budapest, Plácido Domingo said how important it is to nurture talent and discover young talent, which is why he is very happy to be involved with the Virtuosos. He also said that after he and several of his family members had contracted the coronavirus infection and were hospitalized for it, he considered this charity concert extremely important, with which he could personally honor the health workers.
Mariann Peller, the founder of the Virtuosos, emphasized that the program will be featured again next year, and that it is a great pleasure for the young winner of the talent show, Balázs-Piri Soma, to perform at the Maestro’s concert for the second time.
In the concert film, in addition to the details of the concert, there will also be interviews in which the artists, who will tell us what it means to them that they can honor the healthcare workers with this film. The director of the film, Imre Szabó-Stein, was awarded by some important international film festivals for his earlier works, such as at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals.