Rubén Domínguez is a Venezuelan lirico-spinto

Spinto

Spinto is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is capable of handling large musical climaxes in opera at moderate intervals...

 tenor. He is recognized for his work within the lirico-spinto

Spinto

Spinto is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is capable of handling large musical climaxes in opera at moderate intervals...

 repertory, as well as works by Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

 and Donizetti. He played many verismo

Verismo

Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....

 roles such as Canio in Pagliacci

Pagliacci

Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...

. He also played Otello

Otello

Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....

, Mario Cavaradossi, Manrico, Radamés and Calaf.

Early life

Rubén Domínguez was born on September 4, 1940 in Caracas, Venezuela. When Domínguez was pressured by a Venezuelan political party (AD) that he would never sing in Venezuela if he did not study with party protegé,Carmen Teresa Hurtado, he chose instead to move to Milan, Italy.

Musical career

In Milan he was accepted as a student of Spanish voice teacher Mercedes Llopart

Mercedes Llopart

Mercedes Llopart was a Spanish soprano who later became a notable singing teacher in Italy.Mercedes Llopart studied in her native Barcelona and made her operatic debut there in 1915. She then went to Italy where she sang in many small theatres before making her debut at the Rome Opera in 1920...

, also the teacher of the Spanish tenor, Alfredo Kraus

Alfredo Kraus

Alfredo Kraus Trujillo was a distinguished Spanish tenor of partly Austrian descent, particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles...

. He made his international operatic debut in Tosca

Tosca

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...

at the Teatro de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...

 in 1967. Domínguez followed this with performances of the same opera in Dallas,Texas opposite soprano Magda Olivero. He later returned to Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

 and participated in various productions in the Opera Metropolitana de Caracas (OMAC). He has sung in the principal houses of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 including the Municipal Theater of Santiago

Municipal Theater of Santiago

The Teatro Municipal is the most important stage theatre and opera house in Santiago, Chile.-History and overview:The Chilean government ceded a significant parcel of land in downtown Santiago to the municipality, in 1848, and an 1853 decree by President Manuel Montt Torres provided for the...

 and the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro

Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro)

The Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro is located in Cinelândia in the city center of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built in the beginning of the twentieth century, it is one of the most beautiful and important theatres in the country.The building is designed in an eclectic style, inspired by the...

 in its 1978 reopening performance of Turandot

Turandot

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...

with Ghena Dimitrova. He has also participated in various opera festivals such as the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago

Torre del Lago

Torre del Lago is a town of almost 11,000 inhabitants, a frazione of the comune of Viareggio, in the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, between the Lake of Massaciuccoli and the Tyrrhenian Sea....

, Italy, La Stagione Lirica Estiva de Cagliari in Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

, the San Francisco Opera Festival, and the International Festival of the Opera Metropolitana de Caracas. In North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 he has performed at the Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)

The Metropolitan Opera House is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the theater opened in 1966. It replaced the former Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th St...

 and the Teatro de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...

. Domínguez has performed in the opera companies of Edmondton, Baltimore, San Diego, New Orleans, Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Opera Pacific. In 1988, Domínguez was awarded the Luciano Pavarotti Award. In addition to his on-stage experience, Domínguez has been involved in teaching in the form of master classes in vocal production.
He currently resides in Caracas with his American wife, Asunción.

External links