Plácido Domingo Ferrer

Plácido Domingo Ferrer (March 8, 1907 – November 22, 1987) was a Spanish zarzuela baritone and father of popular operatic tenor Plácido Domingo. Half Catalan and half Aragonese, he grew up and made his early career in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon. He frequently toured Spain with his soprano wife Pepita Embil. In late 1948, they permanently moved to Mexico, where they successfully ran their own zarzuela company. He also appeared in recordings and on Mexican television.

Plácido Domingo Ferrer was born in Zaragoza, Spain on March 8, 1907. His mother, María Ferrer Ripol, originally came from the small Aragonese town of La Codoñera in the province of Teruel. As a young woman she moved to Barcelona to find work. There she met her future husband, Pedro Domingo, who was born in Tordera, Catalonia. They moved to Zaragoza, where they bought a restaurant and had three children, Plácido, the oldest, Pedro (known as Perico), and Henriqueta. When her husband died at age 30, she was left to raise their children and run the restaurant by herself. She made sure that her children studied music theory and learned to play instruments. The family would gather to sing together. Her son Plácido, who was only ten when his father died, played the violin from childhood. As a young man, he studied music at the conservatory in Zaragoza with maestro Teodoro Ballo, an Aragonese violinist, composer, and conductor and the founder of the conservatory. Domingo eventually performed in zarzuela and opera orchestras as a violinist prior to becoming a professional baritone.

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