MADRID — After spending several days in the hospital, opera singer Placido Domingo said Sunday that an early diagnosis for a blocked blood vessel by a medical team in Madrid saved him from possibly more serious medical complications.
Speaking at Madrid's opera house alongside one of the doctors who treated him, the 72-year-old Domingo said he had felt unwell after a rehearsal and quickly sought medical help. The tenor said Dr. Carlos Gonzalez then detected a case of deep vein thrombosis and applied the appropriate treatment.
"I thought I would return from the check-up straight away back to the rehearsal," Domingo said. "But I was told, 'No, there is something serious here'."
Gonzalez explained that a blood clot had formed in Domingo's right leg and moved up to his lungs where it then lodged in an artery. He said it was not an unusual condition, and that it was often linked to spending hours sitting down on long flights.
"It sounds catastrophic, but it didn't turn out like that," Gonzalez said. "We established an early diagnosis, and there should be a good recovery, a complete and full recovery."
Domingo said he had studied Giuseppe Verdi's "Giovanna d'Arco" during the five days he was in the hospital, and he hopes to be well enough to sing his part in it at the Salzburg Festival in early August.
"I tried to cancel it," the Spaniard said, but he was told by festival organizers that the baritone they had to replace him hadn't fully learned the role, so he decided to continue.
"He also looks forward to keeping his engagements in Verona where he will sing and conduct 'Operalia,'" said Nancy Seltzer, the singer's representative in the U.S.
