In 2003, when the Spanish journalist and writer Jesús Ruiz Mantilla left his home Luciano Pavarotti, the world collapsed on him. He didn’t know what to do: he had to speak to someone reliable and tell him what had just happened in his interview with the legendary tenor. He hadn’t managed to come up with a sad headline, a good testimonial, or an interesting revelation. Worst of all, the legend had fallen asleep during the conversation!

There are 25 names that absolutely define opera in the early 21st century. “When we look back, we realize that never before did so many people go to the opera, nor were there so many quality singers worldwide,” says the author of the book “Divos”, Jesús Ruiz Mantilla.

The geopolitics of operatic singing has changed over the past century. From Latin America, figures such as Juan Diego Flórez, Rolando Villazón and Julián Camarena emerged, and from Eastern Europe, Anna Netrebko’s birthplace, Sonya Yonheva and Ermonela Jaho.

There are opera singers who continue to make us remember the term divo or diva like Cecilia Bartoli or Javier Camarena. However, there are others who degenerate or distort it. “From the time of the castrates to the present day, some opera singers have been insufferable, capricious, contemptuous and miserable. This is the opposite meaning of the word,” writes the author.

Ruiz Mantilla points to the case of the Romanian singer, Angela Gheorghiu. “When she crossed the line in terms of the way she treated people, it destroyed her career to the point where no one wanted her in the theater anymore.”

According to Ruiz Mantilla, it has never been as difficult to become an opera star as it is today. “In every era, there was always a new challenge to be a singer. Maria Callas – apart from singing in a glorious and special way – contributed to the art of theatrical performance”, he points out.

“There are also other opera singers who manage their public social media profiles well, in addition to being open to adapting to changes suggested by directors, who are the other great revolutionaries of opera in the early 21st century. century”.

The chapter dedicated to the Madrid tenor, who is accused of harassing women according to the testimonies of at least 27 people, begins with Plácido Domingo asking the author to promise not to write about him again.

The author compares Domingo’s decline to that of Spain’s King Juan Carlos I, who, in 2014, abdicated over an expenses scandal. “Both were legends and both faced with the power of a world prone to tearing down symbols. They don’t understand their own fall,” he writes in “Divos.” He also admits that, 20 years ago, no one could have expected such an ending: “Plácido was a Don Juan, yes, absolutely… but no one judged him.”

In the tenor’s biography – written by Rubén Amón – he confesses that he “never played Don Juan [επί σκηνής], because he was afraid to see himself.” Ruiz Mantilla presents Domingo as a person who is obsessed with being liked by everyone. “He is someone who, every time a new Pope is elected, the first thing he does is go and ask for his blessing,” notes the author. In his opinion, works such as the biography written by Walter Isaacson about Steve Jobs, or the series “The Crown”, depicting Queen Elizabeth II, are proof that, today, myths are glorified based on the greatest weaknesses of people. “This is what Plácido never understood, that by openly showing all your miseries and fears, you highlight your virtues.”

In this world there is a virtue in knowing when to retire…