is a video game series, a spin-off of the Mario franchise. It comprises various video games created by Nintendo, starring the character Wario. The series began with Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, the first game to feature Wario as a playable character. The Wario series includes mostly platforming video games and minigame compilations, but also includes other genres.

Wario Land series

The Wario Land series is a platforming series that started with Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, following Wario's first appearance in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Wario Land games

In Wario Land, Wario has a castle in Kitchen Island, and often journeys to find treasure. Its gameplay consists of platforming through levels, tossing enemies, breaking blocks and using other abilities.

Wario Land characters
 was designed as an antagonist to Mario, and first appeared in the 1992 handheld video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main villain and final boss. Since that time, Wario has developed into the protagonist and antihero of his own video game series spanning both handheld and console markets, in addition to his numerous appearances in spin-offs of the Mario franchise. He is voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices the Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi characters. Wario and Waluigi seem to have been named with respect to the Japanese word warui [悪い], meaning "bad". Therefore, Wario is a "warui Mario" or "bad Mario", and Waluigi is a "warui Luigi" or "bad Luigi".
 is the main antagonist of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and Wario Land II. She is the leader of a legion of seafaring thieves known as the Brown Sugar Pirates, and is Wario's true archenemy, with Mario close behind. She is a technological genius and inventor, constantly building mechanized apparatuses to assist her in attacking whatever target she chooses. The Pirates' base of operations is Kitchen Island, a gigantic coved island in the middle of the ocean, and their main mode of transportation is the S.S. Teacup, a massive pirate ship. She acts as Wario's ally in Wario Land: Shake It! to have him do all of the work for her, however she betrays him in the end and steals his treasure.
 is the main antagonist of Wario Land 3. Rudy lures Wario into the music box world, claiming that he is the god of the world. He convinces Wario to help break the seal that was placed upon him by the other creatures of the world, with the promise of keeping any treasure Wario finds. After the seal is broken, Rudy reveals himself and attacks Wario. Wario defeats him, and the curse on the other inhabitants is broken. Rudy returns in the video game Dr. Mario 64, where he and Mad Scienstein concoct a plan to steal the Megavitamins from Dr. Mario because he has a cold, and wants the power to cure any illness.
 is the main antagonist of Wario Land 4. She is responsible for taking over the golden pyramid that was originally ruled by Princess Shokora whom she placed a curse upon turning her into a black cat. Wario decides to explore the pyramid after reading about its legend in an article. She is not encountered until later in the game when the player gains access to the innermost chamber of the pyramid where various treasures are being kept.
 appears in Wario Land 4. In the game's manual, it is mentioned that she was the original owner of the golden pyramid where the game takes place in, but was cursed by the Golden Diva. In her cursed form, Shokora is capable of shapeshifting, her most common forms being a tiny black cat and a black stick figure. For a price, Wario can get her help in boss fights by inflicting damage on the boss before the fight begins. After Wario recovers her belongings from the pyramid's bosses and destroys the Golden Diva, Shokora is released from the curse and thanks Wario for saving her (though her appearance and Wario's reaction changes based on how many other treasures Wario obtained from the bosses), then is escorted by angels into the heavens.
The  is the main antagonist of Wario Land: Shake It! who kidnaps Queen Merelda and takes the Shake Dimension's treasures, among them the Bottomless Coin Bag that holds an infinite number of coins. Sweet-talked by Captain Syrup with promises of treasure, Wario defeats the Shake King and frees the Shake Dimension from his evil, though this registers as a complete afterthought in Wario's mind.
 appears in Wario Land: Shake It! as the ruler of the Shake Dimension. She is captured by the Shake King in the game's beginning. After being rescued by Wario, Merelda gives him her gratitude, but Wario throws her aside and takes the Bottomless Coin Bag, only for Syrup to steal it from him due to a deal that Merfle made with her.
 appears in Wario Land: Shake It!. She is a small fairy-like creature who helps Wario enter and leave the Shake Dimension. Many of her friends (all of them the same species as Merfle) are captured by the Shake King, and Wario must save them in addition to recovering treasures. At the end of the game, Captain Syrup steals the Bottomless Coin Bag from Wario and Merfle explains that it was already promised to her. This sends Wario into a rage as he chases Merfle through his garage.

Wario: Master of Disguise characters
 is the original star of the television show The Silver Zephyr, in which he is the titular thief. A master of disguise, Cannoli uses his magic wand Goodstyle to change his appearance, but Wario leaps into the television world of the show and steals Goodstyle out of jealousy. Over the course of the game, Cannoli chases Wario demanding Goodstyle back and is a frequent obstacle as he sets traps and attacks Wario in his mechanical Mad Hat vehicle.
 is a sentient magic wand that grants its wearer the power to change their appearance. He has been passed down through the Cannoli family for many generations, but Wario steals him from the current-day Count Cannoli and uses him to become his own alter-ego "The Purple Wind". Goodstyle accepts Wario as his new master and teaches him how to use his power. After Wario defeats Terrormisu, Goodstyle reveals his true form as the very first member of the Cannoli Clan and the one who originally banished Terrormisu. He thanks Wario for his help and gives him all the accumulated wealth of the Cannoli Clan as gratitude. However, Wario discovers that he can't take the treasure out of the television world, leaving him both penniless and furious.
 is a rival thief to Count Cannoli. He owns a corporation called Sigil Securities and can transform into a giant blue ball with a face on it. He initially does not think much of Wario, but quickly realizes that "The Purple Wind" is more than he appears. At one point, Carpaccio teams with Count Cannoli to stop Wario from reassembling the Wishstone, a magical relic that supposedly can grant any wish.
 is a blonde woman in a pink dress who first appears to Wario on Sweatmore Peak and helps him briefly during his search for the Wishstone. After Wario fully reassembles the Wishstone, she reveals her true identity as the demon Terrormisu, the true main antagonist of the game who had been sealed away in the Wishstone by the first of the Cannoli Clan and had been manipulating Wario to reassemble it so she can return and cause disaster. She is ultimately defeated by Wario and runs back into the underworld crying, never to return.

WarioWare series

WarioWare (also Wario Ware), known in Japan as , is a series of games featuring the Nintendo character Wario. The series was established in 2003 with the release of Mega Microgame$! for the Game Boy Advance. While the first two games were developed by Nintendo R&D1, subsequent games have been co-developed by Intelligent Systems.

The distinctive feature of all WarioWare games is that they are collections of short, simple "microgames" presented in quick succession. The player is given four "lives" at the beginning of these microgames. Each of these microgames lasts about three to five seconds and must be completed, or else a life will be lost. For example, there is a microgame where the player must zap a spaceship; in another, Wario must collect coins in a Pac-Man-like maze. The numerous microgames are linked together randomly and steadily increase in speed and difficulty as the player progresses. On each level, losing four games results in a game over. After a certain amount of microgames have been played, the player faces a stage-specific boss microgame; the player must complete these to regain a lost life (with a maximum of four lives at any given time). Boss microgames are considerably longer and more complex than other microgames. For example, a boss microgame in Mega Microgames! instructs the player to hit a nail with a hammer multiple times in a row.

The idea of microgame or minigame was popularized generally during the Nintendo 64's fifth generation of video game consoles and some early minigames appear in the Nintendo 64DD's Mario Artist: Talent Studio in the style that would give rise to the WarioWare series. Certain minigames literally originated in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, as explained by Goro Abe of Nintendo R&D1's so-called Wario Ware All-Star Team: "In Polygon Studio you could create 3D models and animate them in the game, but there was also a side game included inside. In this game you would have to play short games that came one after another. This is where the idea for Wario Ware came from." Teammate Yoshio Sakamoto continued, "To add on that, we got the idea of using Wario and the other characters because we couldn't think of anyone else who would be best for the role. Wario is always doing stupid things and is really idiotic, so we thought him and the rest of the characters would be best for the game."

Game & Wario, released in 2013, is a spin-off of the WarioWare series.

WarioWare Gold was released worldwide in 2018.

WarioWare: Get It Together! was released in September 2021.

WarioWare: Move It! was announced for the Nintendo Switch during a June 2023 Nintendo Direct, with an expected worldwide release date of November 3rd, 2023.

WarioWare games

Microgames
Microgames are simple video games created by the fictional company WarioWare, Inc.. Nintendo's line of WarioWare games each feature these microgames, which are generally less than 5 seconds long. Microgames are even simpler and shorter than the minigames found in other games such as the Mario Party series. Gameplay in all WarioWare games is distinct from most other games, as they involve the player or players trying to beat the microgames as soon as possible. Most games present instructions in the form of a verb and quickly drop the player into the situation where they must perform said verb. The extremely stripped-down gameplay has intrigued some game researchers, who have used WarioWare both as a case study in understanding the relationship between rules and play in videogames, and as a target domain for investigating automated game design.

All microgames are strung together in a random order within different "stages", each hosted by a different character. First, the player is presented with a quick one or two word instruction such as "Eat!" or "Rub!" Then, the microgame will appear and the player will have to complete the game according to the instruction.

Microgames usually have only one task to complete. For example, in one microgame the player is told to "Enter!" and is presented with a scene from The Legend of Zelda. The player must use the directional buttons to move Link to a cave entrance before the time runs out. In another microgame, the player is told to "Avoid!" and must drive a car, avoiding oncoming traffic. Most microgames have a sound effect that signifies when the task is completed.  The games by themselves are so brief so as to potentially demand the sharp reflexes of a quick-time event.

Boss microgames always occur at a set point in a stage. They are usually more challenging than regular microgames, have no time limit (as described below), and give lives back upon completion. If a stage is played for the first time, it is completed after the boss microgame. The sound effect will usually play after the task is fulfilled, and then the score screen will return. On repeated plays, if the player has less than four lives, one will be restored.

The unit of time for all microgames is beats. In Mega Microgames! and Twisted!, a standard microgame is 8 beats, double-length microgames (usually IQ-genre games) last 16 beats; Fronk's microgames in Twisted! and Gold only last 4 beats. In most games, the BPM will start out relatively slow and will increase as the player completes microgames.

In WarioWare: Touched!, the 8-beat standard has been dropped for all microgames, so many last longer than 8 beats. This may be a way to make the game easier for those unaccustomed to the Nintendo DS's touch-screen interface. To retain pace, the microgames will automatically end if cleared before a four-beat measure is met.

To show the time left to complete a microgame, a small "bomb" appears at the bottom of the screen. The fuse and a countdown timer show the amount of time left to complete the microgame. When time runs out, the bomb explodes and in most cases, the player loses a life. The fuse burns faster when the BPM increases.

Some microgames are intrinsically harder than others, and an increased BPM (increased speed) will make any microgame more difficult to complete than the same microgame at a slower BPM. This is usually reflected in the microgames' "clear scores"—the score one must reach while playing a microgame in the practice modes to obtain credit for "clearing" it. (Smooth Moves and D.I.Y. lack this feature.)

Each microgame features three difficulty levels. Most modes start at the easiest level, and progress to the next upon a "Level Up" (usually achieved after passing a boss microgame). Once the maximum level is reached, sequential "Level Up"s will typically be replaced by "Speed Up"s (an increase in BPM).

Using the above The Legend of Zelda microgame as an example, the first version of this microgame usually places Link very close to the cave entrance that he must enter. The second version places the entrance further away and places an enemy that blocks Link, and the last version places the entrance yet further, and has a second enemy that shoots at Link from a lake.

WarioWare characters
There are two major types of character in the WarioWare series. The first are the WarioWare, Inc. developers, who both create and host the microgames. Each one has a unique theme or twist, depending on the game. For instance, Jimmy T.'s microgames in Twisted! are focused around large spins, while in Touched! his microgames involve rubbing objects with the stylus. The second group of characters often show up within the introduction cutscenes — the most notable being Fronk, who hosts "Pop-Up" microgames in Twisted! and Gold and pops up in the most unlikely of places.

Major characters
 is 9-Volt's mother and makes a few appearances in the WarioWare games. She is never fully seen until Game & Wario, and is a human like her son. 5-Volt lives along with her son and his pet Fronk in a house in Diamond City. She makes her first appearance in WarioWare: Twisted!, where she shouts at 9-Volt to go to bed since he was playing with 18-Volt all day. 5-Volt is seen only from behind, and from the knees down. After 9-Volt has gone to bed, he still furtively plays with his Game Boy Advance SP under the bedspread, but his mother catches him when she opens his room's door a second time. 5-Volt's silhouette is seen in the doorway. 5-Volt is seen again in WarioWare: Touched!, as a silhouette in the Game Over screen of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's stage. She watches her son and his friend eating cake. In Game and Wario, she has a more major role as the main obstacle in the "Gamer" minigame. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, she appears as a stage hazard in the Gamer stage. She appears again in WarioWare Gold with her own microgames that are all based on Nintendo games, just like 9-Volt's and 18-Volt's. Since Gold, she has been voiced by Cristina Vee in English and Ruriko Aoki in Japanese.
 is a young Nintendo fanatic, owning everything ever made by Nintendo. 9-Volt's microgames are all based on Nintendo games as well as toys from when Nintendo was primarily a toy company. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Melissa Hutchison in English and Makoto Koichi in Japanese.
 is 9-Volt's best friend, and is also a fan of video games. He is large, but despite his size, he goes to Diamond Elementary School, as does 9-Volt. His other defining trait is the boom box he always carries; his loud music gets him into trouble on his first day of school, although he soon finds an admirer in 9-Volt. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Edward Bosco in English and Subaru Kimura in Japanese.
 is a 15 year-old witch-in-training, who lives in a haunted mansion in Diamond City with a little demon/devil or imp named Red. She has long black hair in two long ponytails. Ashley makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as an Assist Trophy character. Ashley also appears in Super Mario Maker as an unlockable Mystery Mushroom costume. Ashley reprised her role as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Since Gold, Ashley has been voiced by Erica Lindbeck in English and Yumi Yoshimura in Japanese, while Red has been voiced by Tyler Shamy in English and Mako Muto in Japanese.
 and  are two developers who speak with Bronx accents. They also work as cabbies, and their cab, which was designed by Dr. Crygor, has the ability to go anywhere in the universe. Dribble is a large anthropomorphic bulldog with red hair. He is large, burly, and seems gruff, but he is actually quite calm and friendly. Spitz is a yellow anthropomorphic cat. He is always squinting and wears goggles. Their levels generally involve picking up a weird customer and forgetting to ask for the fare. Since Gold, Dribble has been voiced by Kyle Hebert in English and Yūma Kametani in Japanese, while Spitz has been voiced by Griffin Puatu in English and Kazuya Yamaguchi in Japanese.
 is a quirky scientist whose inventions include his cryogenic suit, Mike, the karaoke robot that would "solve all his cleaning needs", the Super MakerMatic 21, and the Kelerometer diet machine. One of the character card descriptions in WarioWare Gold states that he is over 100 years old. He is the grandfather of Penny Crygor. In WarioWare: Touched, Dr. Crygor accidentally gets caught in his latest invention and is younger and more fit, with red accents to his costume, as well as a full helmet. These changes remain for a part of WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Kyle Hebert in English and Kensuke Matsui in Japanese.
The  are a strange, blocky, yellow species of creatures. They appear constantly throughout all the WarioWare games, both in microgames and cutscenes. 9-Volt apparently even keeps one of them as a pet, calling it "Shag." In addition to several varieties of yellow Fronk, there are also red and blue varieties; their faces vary individually from each other. Since Gold, 9-Volt's pet Fronk has been voiced by Todd Haberkorn in English and Kazuya Yamaguchi in Japanese.
 is a man with a large blue afro wig, who is a disco dancing fanatic. Jimmy is always seen frequenting hot Diamond City night spots, particularly Club Sugar. His family, which also dances with him includes Papa T. and Mama T., and his brother and sister, James T. and Jamie T. He also has a doppelganger named Jimmy P. whose hair is a different color to his. Their levels often involve remixing the games from previous stages. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Vegas Trip in English and Yūma Kametani in Japanese.
 and  are kindergarten-aged ninja twins. Kat has pink hair with a single ponytail, while Ana has orange hair with two ponytails. They have four pets: Don the Sparrow, Shadow the Dog, Shuriken the Falcon, and Numchuck the Monkey. Kat & Ana make a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as Assist Trophy characters and regular trophies. Since Gold, Kat has been voiced by Stephanie Sheh in English and Maya Enoyoshi in Japanese, while Ana has been voiced by Fryda Wolff in English and Yui Matsuyama in Japanese.
 is a young girl who made her appearance in WarioWare Gold and WarioWare: Get It Together!, coming from an isolated town called Luxeville. Despite her age, she is very smart and brave, considering how she's able to battle Wario Deluxe. Her goal in WarioWare Gold is to retrieve an artifact from her village stolen by Wario. She seems to view herself as a hero of sorts, as supported by her saying "Lulu...the greatest hero ever.." in her sleep during one of the cutscenes. She has been voiced by Alex Cazares in English and Mako Muto in Japanese.
 is a karaoke robot made by Dr. Crygor. Despite being a robot built for karaoke, the slightly mad doctor programs him to be a cleaning robot. Eventually, Mike overrides his cleaning program with his karaoke program by blowing on a pile of dust. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Robbie Daymond in English and Ryōta Suzuki in Japanese.
 is a high school student with different part-time jobs in each game. Mona is quite adventurous, cheerful and culturally savvy. She always seems to be late to wherever she is going, often speeds on her scooter to make up for lost time, and uses the assistance of her animal companions to stop anyone trying to slow her down. Her former occupations include working at a gelato shop, pizza delivery girl on Mona Pizza, bassist, football cheerleader, and a temple explorer. Also, Mona has a crush on Wario. Since Gold, she has been voiced by Stephanie Sheh in English and Ruriko Aoki in Japanese.
 is an intelligent alien. He has an IQ of 300. The instruction manual for WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! and WarioWare Gold both imply that Orbulon was born in the year 0. Orbulon first wishes to conquer Earth, but after crash-landing on the planet, he settles into life on Earth and ends his mission of conquest. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Robbie Daymond in English and Shinya Hamazoe in Japanese.
 is the granddaughter of Dr. Crygor and dreams of becoming a great scientist. Her stage in WarioWare Gold reveals that she also has a hidden desire to become a singer. Penny sees her grandfather as an excellent scientist, though she also recognizes his eccentric nature. Since Gold, she has been voiced by Fryda Wolff in English and Maya Enoyoshi in Japanese.
 is a character that has his own game in almost every WarioWare title, each one varying in style. The original Pyoro game is Wario's inspiration to found WarioWare, Inc.. Pyoro resembles a round red bird with a white belly, short wings, and a very stretchy tongue. Pyoro 2 (from the GBA version) is the only game where Pyoro is yellow with a tail. Pyoro also appears as a title character in Bird & Beans, the DSi re-release.
 is first introduced in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. He has flowing black hair with white streaks and a blue outfit. He practices martial arts and trains with his master, Master Mantis, in the hopes of becoming a kung-fu master. Since Gold, Young Cricket has been voiced by Robbie Daymond in English and Ryōta Suzuki in Japanese, while Master Mantis has been voiced by Owen Thomas in English and Shinya Hamazoe in Japanese.

Minor characters
 is a female teenager who appears in 18-Volt's stage from WarioWare Gold. She steals a kid's video games, but 18-Volt gives them back after beating 13-Amp in a rap battle. 13-Amp has been voiced by Cristina Vee in English and Yui Matsuyama in Japanese.
4.1 and 4.2 are Mona's two wolflike pets who made their first appearance in WarioWare: Touched! (2004). 4.1 and 4.2 only appear during Mona's story. When Vanessa sics The Dinosaurs, other members of her band, in their hawk-like plane on Mona when she travels to the Hawt House, they steal Art, a member of Mona's band, from her van. Pizza Joe comes in, along with her three other animals, to reclaim him. Unfortunately, Mona's animals fail miserably. Joe then distracts The Dinosaurs long enough for 4.1 and 4.2 to come in and use their soccer ball launcher on the Dinosaurs plane. Sadly, even they were unable to save Art from the Dinosaurs. 4.1 and 4.2 have not been seen since.
 is a robot who appears in WarioWare Gold that was created by Dr. Crygor before Mike. While on an expedition in Agate Forest, they encounter her and Doris 1 chases Dr. Crygor for abandoning her. After that, they take her back to Dr. Crygor's Lab, where she is forgiven. She was voiced by Makoto Koichi in Japanese.
 is the owner of the Sweet Spot Bakery that Wario visits in the game WarioWare: Touched! (2004). After the dentist Dr. Payne told Wario to stay away from all sweets, (since he got a cavity from eating too many sweets) he left the Dental Clinic and picked up the scent from the bakery. Ignoring what the dentist said, Wario asked Bridget the Baker to give him 10 pies. After a few bites Wario got another cavity and the pain sent him all the way to the Dental Clinic. While he flew away, Bridget bid him goodbye with a friendly "Thank you, come again."
 is a demon who appears in WarioWare Gold who makes a monster very hungry. According to Red, he is never satisfied, mean and breathes fire. After being defeated by Ashley, he changes into a different person. His name is a play on the word "hungry".
 is an anthropomorphic beagle who made his first appearance in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! (2004). He usually appears alongside Mona, often as a co-worker. Like Mona, he has several occupations throughout the series, such as a gelato shop worker and clothing store owner. Since Gold, he has been voiced by Kyle Hebert in English and Kō Takeuchi in Japanese.
 is a pop singer from WarioWare: Touched!, her main appearance being as the antagonist of Mona's story, Cute Cuts.
 is Diamond City's popular singer who made her first appearance in WarioWare: Twisted! (2004). She appears during Mona's storyline as the singer for Mona Pizza's commercial.

Other games

Wario has starred in puzzle games such as Mario & Wario and Wario's Woods (the latter of which he was featured as the main antagonist while Toad took the role as the main hero), as well as crossing over into the Bomberman universe with Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! (1994).

Appearances in other game series
Wario is a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series, having appeared since Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His default outfit in these games is his motorcyclist outfit as seen in the WarioWare games, although he can also wear his classic overalls. He can transform into Wario-Man after obtaining a Smash Ball. His motorcycle is used as one of his special attacks. Kat and Ana also make appearances as an Assist Trophy. In Brawl, many stickers also represent WarioWare, Inc. — in addition to all of the above appearing as stickers and trophies, there are stickers of other WarioWare characters. Also, there is a WarioWare stage, named WarioWare, Inc., based on the Variety Tower location from WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! with several different microgames that run in the background, one of which features Jimmy T. Completing the tasks set by the games awards power-ups like invincibility or growth. This stage also features Ashley's Song, Mike's Theme and Mona Pizza's Song as background music. All three are featured in Japanese and English. In the game's Adventure Mode, he is in league with the Subspace Army. Wario is once again playable in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, however he now appears as unlockable, instead of being available from the start as in the previous game. The 3DS version retains the WarioWare, Inc. stage from Brawl, while the Wii U version has a stage based on the Gamer sub-game in Game & Wario. Ashley, another character from WarioWare, is also included as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and a downloadable Mii costume in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

The Alien Bunnies from Orbulon's stage in Mega Microgame$ make an appearance in Rhythm Tengoku, a game developed by the same team, and also make brief appearances in its sequel, Rhythm Heaven. A later sequel, Rhythm Heaven Megamix features two unlockable challenges called "Wario...Where?" that remix several of the minigames to feature characters from the WarioWare series.

Notes

References

Video game franchises

Nintendo franchises
Video games about witchcraft
Video game franchises introduced in 1994
WarioWare

Wario (series)


Drunk driving (Drink driving in the UK and Australia) is the act of driving a motor vehicle (car, truck, etc.) while under the effects of alcohol.  Drunk driving is illegal in most areas of the world.  In some places, driving a motorless vehicle such as a bicycle while drunk is also illegal.

Most areas that make laws (jurisdictions) started with DWI (driving while intoxicated) laws, banning just alcohol. Later, most changed them to DUI (driving under the influence) laws, adding other drugs to those banned while driving. The most common blood alcohol content (BAC) limit in the United States is 0.08% for the legal meaning of drunk. Only three states still use the more lax, original standard of 0.10%.  Many jurisdictions add extra penalties (more jail time and/or a longer DUI program) in cases where the driver's BAC is over 0.20%.

United States laws

The first place in the United States to adopt laws against drunk driving was the state of New York in 1910, with California (1911) and others doing the same later. Early laws simply banned driving while drunk, with no mention of what BAC was banned (which means how drunk the person is). The state of Georgia was one of the last states to make laws against drunk driving. One of the years with the most alcohol related crashes was 1982. The year 1982 had 26,173 alcohol related deaths due to drunk driving.

In the US, most of the laws were greatly tightened in the early 1980s, largely due to pressure from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and Young Adults Educating Responsible Drinking.

Types of crime

Drunk driving


José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into exclusively baritone parts, most notably Simon Boccanegra. As of 2020, he has performed 151 different roles.

Domingo has also achieved significant success as a crossover artist, especially in the genres of Latin and popular music. In addition to winning fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, several of his records have gone silver, gold, platinum and multi-platinum. His first pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), spread his fame beyond the opera world. The title song, performed as a duet with country and folk singer John Denver, has sold almost four million copies and helped lead to numerous television appearances for the tenor. He also starred in many cinematically released and televised opera movies, particularly under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli. In 1990, he began singing with fellow tenors Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras as part of The Three Tenors. The first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time.

Growing up working in his parents' zarzuela company in Mexico, Domingo has since regularly promoted this form of Spanish opera. He also increasingly conducts operas and concerts and was the general director of the Los Angeles Opera in California from 2017 to 2019. He was initially the artistic director and later general director of the Washington National Opera from 1996 to 2011. He has been involved in numerous humanitarian works, as well as efforts to help young opera singers, including starting and running the international singing competition, Operalia. In the years 2019-2021 he has performed continuously on stages in Berlin, Budapest, Cologne, Graz, Madrid, Mérida, Milan, Monte Carlo, Moscow, Munich, Palermo, Rome, Salzburg, Sofia, Verona, Versailles, Vienna and Zurich.

Early life

Plácido Domingo was born on 21 January 1941 in the Retiro district of Madrid, Spain. His mother recalled that she and her husband knew he would be a musician from the age of five, due to his ability to hum complex music from a zarzuela after seeing a performance of it. In 1949, just days before his eighth birthday, he moved to Mexico with his family. His parents, both singers, had decided to start a zarzuela company there after a successful tour of Latin America. Soon after arriving in Mexico, Domingo won a singing contest for boys, and his parents occasionally recruited him and his sister for children's roles in their zarzuela productions. Domingo studied piano from a young age, at first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, which he entered when he was fourteen. At the conservatory, he also attended conducting classes taught by Igor Markevitch and studied voice under Carlo Morelli, the brother of Renato Zanelli. The two brothers were famous practitioners of both baritone and tenor roles. Domingo's conservatory classes constituted the entirety of his formal vocal instruction; he never studied privately with a singing teacher.

In 1957, at age sixteen, Domingo made his first professional appearance, accompanying his mother on the piano at a concert at Mérida, Yucatán. The same year he made his major zarzuela debut in Manuel Fernández Caballero's , singing a baritone role. At that time, he was working with his parents' zarzuela company, eventually taking several baritone roles and acting as an accompanist for other singers. The following year, the tenor in another company's touring production of Luisa Fernanda fell ill. In his first performance as a tenor, Domingo replaced the ailing singer, although he feared the part's tessitura was too high for him. Later that same year, he sang the tenor role of Rafael in the Spanish opera El gato montés, illustrating his willingness to assay the tenor range, even as he still considered himself a baritone. On 12 May 1959 at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, he appeared in the baritone role (sometimes sung by basses) of Pascual in Emilio Arrieta's . Like El gato montés, Marina is an opera composed in the zarzuela musical style rather than a zarzuela proper, although both are usually performed by zarzuela companies. In addition to his work with zarzuelas, among his earliest performances was a minor role in the first Latin American production of the musical My Fair Lady, in which he was also the assistant conductor and assistant coach. While he was a member, the company gave 185 performances of the musical in various cities in Mexico.

In 1959, Domingo auditioned for the Mexico National Opera at the Palacio de Béllas Artes as a baritone, but was then asked to sight-read the tenor aria "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora. He was accepted at the National Opera as a tenor comprimario and as a tutor for other singers. In what he considered his operatic debut, Domingo sang the minor role of Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto on September 23 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in a production with veteran American baritone Cornell MacNeil and bass-baritone Norman Treigle. He later appeared as the Padre Confessor in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Altoum and Pang in Turandot, Normanno and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor among other small parts. While at the National Opera, he also appeared in a production of Lehár's operetta, The Merry Widow, in which he alternated as Camille and Danilo (both originally created as tenor roles, although the latter is often sung by baritones). Domingo made his debut in Verdi's Otello at Béllas Artes at age 21 in the summer of 1962 not in the title rôle for which he has now been internationally famous for decades as one of its greatest interpreters, but in the small comprimario part of Cassio.

To supplement his income, the young Domingo played the piano for a ballet company, as well as for a program on Mexico's newly founded cultural television station. The program consisted of excerpts from zarzuelas, operettas, operas, and musical comedies. He acted in a few small parts while at the theater in plays by Federico García Lorca, Luigi Pirandello, and Anton Chekhov. He also provided song arrangements and backup vocals for Los Camisas Negras in the late 1950s, a rock-and-roll band led by César Costa. In his autobiography, Domingo reflected on the benefits of his busy and varied career as a teenager: "Today, when people ask me how I manage to hold up under my extremely heavy work load, I answer that I became accustomed to intense activity very early in my life and that I love it now as I loved it then."

Career

1960s–1980s

Establishing a career in opera

In 1961, Domingo made his operatic debut in a leading role as Alfredo in La traviata at the Teatro de la Ciudad in Monterrey. Later the same year, he made his debut in the United States with the Dallas Civic Opera, where he sang the role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor opposite Joan Sutherland in the title role and Ettore Bastianini as Enrico. In 1962, he returned to Texas to sing the role of Edgardo in the same opera with Lily Pons at the Fort Worth Opera. It would be the soprano's final operatic performance. That November Domingo sang the second tenor role of Cassio to Mario del Monaco's celebrated Otello in Hartford, Connecticut. At the end of 1962, he signed a six-month contract with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, but later extended the contract and stayed for two and a half years, singing 280 performances of 12 different roles.

In June 1965, after finishing his contract in Tel Aviv, Domingo auditioned at the New York City Opera. He was hired to make his New York debut as Don José in Bizet's Carmen with the company, but his debut came earlier than expected on 17 June 1965 when he filled in for an ailing tenor at the last minute in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In February 1966, he sang the title role in the U.S. premiere of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera, to much acclaim. The New York Times review noted: "Mr. Domingo was as impressive as ever—a big, burly, large-voiced singer who looks exactly as one would visualize a hero from Gothic Spain." The performance also marked the opening of the City Opera's new home at Lincoln Center.

His official debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York occurred on 28 September 1968, when he substituted with little notice for Franco Corelli  in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Tebaldi. Two years before this Adriana Lecouvreur, he had already performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Lewisohn Stadium in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Since then, he has opened the season at the Metropolitan Opera 21 times, more than any other singer, surpassing the previous record of Enrico Caruso by four. He has appeared with the company every season since 1968–1969. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968; at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in 1969; at Arena di Verona on July 16, 1969 as Calaf (his first) in Turandot with Birgit Nilsson; at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company in 1970; and at Covent Garden in 1971. In 1975, Domingo debuted at the prestigious Salzburg Festival, singing the title role in Don Carlo in an all-star cast with Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli, Mirella Freni and Christa Ludwig with Herbert von Karajan conducting. Thereafter Domingo frequently returned to Salzburg for a number of operas, as well as for several concert performances. He has now sung at practically every important opera house and festival worldwide.

Domingo first sang Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in a 1961 performance in Mexico City. He sang Cavaradossi at the Met on February 15, 1969 with Nilsson (broadcast). 1971 he made his Covent Garden debut in the role. He continued to sing the part for many years, especially at the Met and in Vienna, eventually performing it more than any other of his roles. In September 1975, Domingo debuted in the title role of Verdi's Otello at the Hamburg State Opera. It soon became his signature role and one of operas he performed most frequently (over 200 times). He recorded the part three times in the studio and appeared in four officially released filmed versions of the opera. Oscar-winning Shakespearean actor, Laurence Olivier, declared after seeing the tenor in the role: "Domingo plays Othello as well as I do and he has that voice."

Domingo has also conducted operas and occasionally symphony orchestras as well. On 7 October 1973 he conducted his first opera performance, La traviata starring Patricia Brooks at the New York City Opera. The same year he released his debut album as a conductor, Domingo Conducts Milnes/Milnes Conducts Domingo, with baritone Sherrill Milnes. Domingo increasingly began to appear as a conductor at major opera houses around the world. In late 1983, he led a performance of Johan Strauss's Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden, which was televised. Three years later, he made a studio recording of the operetta, in which he both conducted and sang the role of Alfred.

Growing celebrity

The 1980s were a time of growing success and fame for Domingo. In 1981 he gained considerable recognition outside of the opera world when he recorded the song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with the American country/folk music singer John Denver. He followed this success with many more albums of popular and Latin music. Domingo expressed the hope that his popular albums would expand his fan base in a way that would eventually lead more people to discover opera. These forays outside of the opera world led to numerous television appearances for the tenor, who was no longer known only by classical music lovers. In 1987, he and Denver joined Julie Andrews for an Emmy Award-winning holiday television special, The Sound of Christmas, filmed in Salzburg, Austria. He was interviewed on many talk shows and news programs, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and 60 Minutes. Increasingly substantial numbers of his operatic performances were also shown on television during the 1980s.

After gaining experience acting for the cameras in numerous televised operas, Domingo performed in his first cinematically released opera movie, La Traviata, in 1982. He had worked with the film's director, former Academy Award nominee Franco Zeffirelli, previously in staged opera productions. Even as filming continued in Rome, he commuted back and forth to perform live in Vienna, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid. In 1984, Domingo filmed the role of Don José in Francesco Rosi's movie version of Carmen in his native Spain. Zeffirelli reunited with the tenor two years later for another version of an opera, Otello, that ran in movie theaters worldwide. Domingo considered Carmen the best of the three, although he disagreed with the director's "low conception" of his character. He found La traviata to be "impressive", but expressed displeasure over cuts to the music in Zeffirelli's Otello.

Even while diversifying his career, he continued to appear with great frequency in largely well-received operatic performances. By 1982 Newsweek declared Domingo "King Of The Opera" on its cover. The magazine's featured article, which recounted and analyzed his career, praised the singer for his "heroic voice, superb musicianship, fine acting skills and dashing Latin good looks". That same year, Domingo appeared at the Metropolitan Opera's opening night performance of Bellini's Norma. It was the first time onstage that the tenor sang the part of Pollione, one of his rare excursions into the bel canto repertory. He was also set to open the Met's 1983-1984 centennial season debuting as Enée in a well publicized new production of Berlioz' Les Troyens, but a couple months in advance expressed uncertainty whether he could successful sing the role's high tessitura without harming his voice. He asked to be released from his contract, but eventually decided to sing four of the six performances in the run with his friend James Levine conducting, including one performance that was telecast. He never sang the part again.

During rehearsals for Les Troyens, Domingo rescued the opening night of the San Francisco Opera's season. The tenor scheduled to sing Otello, Carlo Cossutta, cancelled on the day of the performance. The company asked Domingo to replace him at 4 p.m. He quickly flew from New York to San Francisco, rushed to the opera house, and appeared in the role at 10:30 in the evening. A writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, among other journalists, reported extensively on the event. He observed the crowds gathering around the stage door for the tenor's arrival and remarked on how most of the waiting audience members "were breathless over the chance to see Placido Domingo, a star who draws the kind of rapt devotion that Mick Jagger inspires among rock fans."

For the opening night of the following Met season, Domingo returned to the role of Wagner's Lohengrin, which he had last sung in early 1968. He had originally dropped the role from his repertoire after he felt his voice had been temporarily damaged by learning the challenging opera. The New York Times noted that the now more mature artist "lacked the chrome-plated, penetrating quality that one associates with German tenors", but praised him for bringing "an unusual legato grace to a role that is seldom sung so beautifully". He also performed the role at the Vienna State Opera in 1985 and 1990. A performance during his last run of the opera was televised on 28 January 1990 and later released on VHS and DVD. He had just recovered from the flu at the time.

On 19 September 1985 the biggest earthquake in Mexico's history devastated part of the Mexican capital. Domingo's aunt, uncle, nephew and his nephew's young son were killed in the collapse of the Nuevo León apartment block in the Tlatelolco housing complex. Cancelling several performances, Domingo himself labored to rescue survivors. During the next year, he performed benefit concerts for the victims and released an album of one of the events. Also in 1986 he appeared in a special gala concert for Queen Elizabeth II and in the world premiere of Goya, an opera that Gian Carlo Menotti composed specifically for him. Domingo had encouraged Menotti to make the opera about the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, whose life fascinated the singer.

Since 1990

Changing repertoire

Since the 1990s Domingo has continued adding new roles to his growing repertoire, while dropping earlier parts. The 1990s were the start of rapid change in the types of roles the tenor performed. During this decade he sang his last Cavaradossi, Don Carlo, Don José, Gustavo/Riccardo, Hoffmann, and Alvaro, among others, and he began instead to expand the breadth of his roles more substantially beyond the standard Italian and French repertory (Berlioz's Requiem in 1979). In particular, he increased his involvement in Wagnerian operas. Although he had already sung Lohengrin and recorded a few operas by the composer, he did not perform any of Wagner's works frequently onstage until he debuted as Parsifal in 1991 and Siegmund in 1992. He continued to sing these roles for almost two decades, including at the Bayreuth Festival.

For the first time in over three decades, Domingo debuted in a Mozart opera, Idomeneo, in 1994 at the Met. During the nineties, he also appeared in the early Verdi opera, Stiffelio, the Brazilian Il Guarany, and the French grand operas, Hérodiade and Le prophète, all of which are rarely performed. Toward the end of the decade, he added his first Russian-language opera, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (although he had performed Eugene Onegin in translation while in Israel early in his career).

In the 2000s, he sang his last performances of some of the most successful operas from early in his career: Andrea Chénier, Samson et Dalila, Otello, La fanciulla del West, Fedora, Pagliacci, and Adriana Lecouvreur. In the twenty-first century, however, he has focused mostly on new roles. Early in the 2000s he sang the role of Arrigo in two concert performances of Verdi's rare La battaglia di Legnano and debuted in Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, an opera that his Three Tenors colleague José Carreras had recently revived from obscurity. Domingo himself worked to popularize Franco Alfano's infrequently performed Cyrano de Bergerac a few years later. Shifting musical styles again, he appeared in the eighteenth-century operas Iphigénie en Tauride and Tamerlano late in the decade.

Additionally, Domingo created several new roles in modern operas, such as the title role in Tan Dun's 2006 opera The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera, which was broadcast worldwide into movie theaters as part of the Met Live in HD series. In September 2010, he created the role of the poet Pablo Neruda in the world première of Daniel Catán's opera Il Postino at the Los Angeles Opera. During the 2011–2012 season, Domingo sang Neptune in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere performance of Jeremy Sams' The Enchanted Island. A pastiche of Baroque opera with story and characters drawn from Shakespeare's The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, a performance of the production was telecast on PBS' Great Performances at the Met.

High-profile appearances
Giving him greater international recognition outside of the world of opera, Domingo participated in The Three Tenors concert on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final in Rome with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. The event was originally conceived to raise money for the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation and was later repeated a number of times, including at the three subsequent World Cup finals (1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama). The recording of their first appearance together, Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert, went multi-platinum with sales in excess of three million in the United States alone, eventually outselling every previous classical album worldwide. Domingo and his colleagues won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for the album. Four years after their first successful concert, around 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watched their televised second World Cup performance at Dodger Stadium. The recording of that event, The Three Tenors in Concert 1994, went platinum and multi-platinum in many countries, even reaching the number one spot on the UK Albums Chart. Without Pavarotti and Carreras, Domingo made an appearance at the final of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin, along with rising stars Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Before the 2014 World Cup final, he performed in Rio de Janeiro with pianist Lang Lang and soprano Ana María Martínez, a winner of his Operalia competition and a frequent singing partner of his. In addition to these large-scale concerts, Domingo recorded the official song for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, "El Mundial".

A lifelong football fan, Domingo has been a vocal supporter of Real Madrid C.F., his home-town team. In 2002, he performed the club's new commemorative anthem, "Himno del Centenario del Real Madrid". It was written by José María Cano, with whom he had previously collaborated on the opera, Luna. Domingo presented the song live at the Bernabeu Stadium during celebrations of the football club's 100 year anniversary. On 13 May 2012, Domingo performed during Real Madrid's season-ending celebrations, when the team won their 32nd Spanish league title. In 2016 he sang the new version of Real Madrid's "Hala Madrid y nada más" with "...Y Nada Mas."

On 24 August 2008, Domingo performed a duet with Song Zuying, singing Ài de Huǒyàn (The Flame of Love) at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing. The Beijing Olympics was the second Olympics at which he performed; he also sang the Olympic Hymn at the closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

In 2002, he made a guest appearance on the song "Novus", the closing track on Santana's album Shaman. Domingo sang before Benedict XVI, during the pope's visit to Nationals Park and the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C., on 16 and 17 April 2008. On 15 March 2009, the Metropolitan Opera paid tribute to Domingo's 40th and the company's 125th anniversaries with a gala performance and onstage dinner. On 29 August 2009, he sang "Panis angelicus" at the funeral mass of Senator Ted Kennedy in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts. In March 2011, Domingo cancelled an engagement in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón in support of the theatre's musicians, who were on strike.

As an opera company director
Domingo began an affiliation with the Washington National Opera in 1986, when he appeared in its world premiere production of Menotti's Goya. This was followed by performances in a production of Tosca in the 1988/89 season. Beginning in the 1996/97 season, he took on the role of Artistic Director, bringing new life to the company's productions through his many connections to singers throughout the world and his own annual appearances in one role each season. One example of his ability to bring new singers to the stage were those by the then up-and-coming Anna Netrebko as Gilda in Rigoletto during the 1999/2000 season. In 2003 Domingo became General Director and his contract was extended through the 2010–2011 season.

Parallel to Domingo's management of the Washington company, he had been Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Opera since 2000. He assumed the position of General Director of the company in 2003. On 20 September 2010, he announced that he would renew his contract as General Director through 2013. A week later he announced that he would not renew his contract as General Director of the Washington National Opera beyond its June 2011 expiration date. Reaction to this included The Washington Posts comments on his accomplishments:
Domingo's goal was to make the WNO an internationally regarded company. At the beginning of his tenure, he lifted the opera to a new level, bringing in more international stars and big-name productions – including José Carreras in Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, Mirella Freni singing opposite Domingo in Fedora, and Renée Fleming in Lucrezia Borgia. And his commitment to American opera meant that the WNO presented the second or third productions of a number of important works: Maw's Sophie's Choice, Bolcom's A View From the Bridge, Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Domingo attempted to quash criticism in East Coast newspapers that he was taking on too much when the singer gave an interview in the Los Angeles Times in which he restated his long-time motto, "When I rest, I rust".

In October 2019, Domingo resigned as general director of the Los Angeles Opera amid accusations of sexual harassment.

Taking on baritone roles

Domingo announced in 2007 that two years later he would take on one of Verdi's most demanding baritone roles, singing the title role in Simon Boccanegra. His debut performance in the part occurred at the Berlin State Opera on 24 October, followed by 29 other performances during the 2009–2010 season at major opera houses around the world, including the Met and the Royal Opera House in London.

After the success of Boccanegra, Domingo has performed other baritone roles including the character of Rigoletto in Verdi's Rigoletto in August 2010 at Reignwood Theatre in Beijing. In March 2012, for the first time he sang the baritone role of the Cenobite monk Athanaël in Massenet's Thaïs, his 139th role. Again, in 2011 he undertook the role of Rigoletto in a live television broadcast in Europe which was shot in real locations in Mantua.

He appeared as Doge Francesco Foscari in Verdi's I due Foscari in a production directed by Thaddeus Strassberger for the Los Angeles Opera in September 2012, in Valencia in early 2013, and at Covent Garden in late 2014. In March 2013, at the Metropolitan Opera, he appeared for the first time as Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata. The following year, he sang Giacomo in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco in Salzburg. Later in 2014, he debuted as the Conte di Luna in Il trovatore in Berlin. The following season, he sang di Luna again at the Salzburg Festival with Anna Netrebko as Leonora, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Azucena and Francesco Meli as Manrico. He first sang the title role of Verdi's Nabucco at Covent Garden in March–April 2013 and has since reprised it in Saint Petersburg, Beijing, Verona, and Vienna. In 2015, he made his debut in the title role of Verdi's Macbeth in Berlin, as well as Don Carlo in Ernani in New York and the title role of Gianni Schicchi in Los Angeles.

On 13 June 2018, Plácido Domingo performed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening gala concert in Moscow held at the Red Square in Moscow, with Anna Netrebko, Juan Diego Florez and Aida Garifullina and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Family and personal life

Domingo was born to Plácido Francisco Domingo Ferrer (8 March 1907 – 22 November 1987) and Josefa "Pepita" Embil Echániz (28 February 1918 – 28 August 1994), two Spanish zarzuela stars who nurtured his early musical abilities. Domingo's father was half Aragonese and half Catalan, while his mother was a Basque from Gipuzkoa. His father began as a violinist performing for opera and zarzuela orchestras. He soon also took on baritone roles in zarzuelas. Even though he damaged his voice by performing while suffering from a cold, he continued singing into the 1970s. Domingo's mother was an established soprano who made her stage debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She met her husband at age 21 while performing in Federico Moreno Torroba's Sor Navarra. Domingo later recalled that experts encouraged his father to sing Wagnerian heldentenor roles, while the Liceu offered his mother a contract to sing opera. In 1946 Moreno Torroba and Domingo's parents formed a zarzuela company and toured in Latin America. His parents later stayed permanently in Mexico and established their own zarzuela troupe, the Domingo-Embil Company. In addition to their son, they also had a daughter, Maria José "Mari Pepa" Domingo de Fernandez (1942–2015).

On 29 August 1957 at age 16, Domingo married a fellow piano student, Ana María Guerra Cué (1938–2006). Their son, José Plácido Domingo Guerra (called "Pepe" as a boy and later "Joe"), now a photographer, was born on 16 June 1958. However, the marriage did not last long, with the couple separating shortly thereafter. On 1 August 1962, Domingo married Marta Ornelas (born 1935), a lyric soprano from Veracruz, Mexico, whom he met during his conservatory days. In the same year, Marta had been voted "Mexican Singer of the Year". After their marriage, the couple performed together frequently at the Israel National Opera. However, after she became pregnant with her first child, she gave up her promising career to devote time to her family. They have two sons, Plácido Francisco (known as Plácido Domingo Jr.), born 21 October 1965, and Alvaro Maurizio, born 11 October 1968.

After a period of time living in Israel, Domingo and his growing family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey in the 1960s. He later acquired residences in Manhattan and Barcelona. Keeping his apartment in New York, he currently also has a house in his native Madrid. During breaks in his work schedule, he usually spends time with family at his vacation home in Acapulco, Mexico.

In March 2010 he underwent surgery for colon cancer. In July 2013, he was admitted to a hospital in Madrid after suffering a pulmonary embolism. He was released on July 14, and was "expected to make a full recovery". In October 2015, he was admitted to a hospital for a cholecystectomy and missed the first five performances of Tosca he was supposed to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.

On 22 March 2020, Domingo announced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico that he had tested positive for COVID-19, which he reportedly contracted at a party in Tequila, Jalisco in honor of Juan Domingo Beckmann, who also tested positive. He was admitted to a hospital in Acapulco to treat complications of the disease but his condition was stable.

Sexual harassment allegations
In August 2019, Domingo was accused of sexual harassment by multiple female colleagues, some dating back as far as 30 years. However, no official charges were ever filed, nor were there any court proceedings or convictions. Nonetheless, Domingo subsequently resigned from his position as general manager of the Los Angeles Opera, saying he did so with a "heavy heart", but in light of the recent allegations against him, he said the move was in the best interest for the opera company.

In late February 2020, Domingo apologized to any colleagues who felt uncomfortable or in any way hurt by his comments or actions. He reiterated that it was never his intention to hurt or offend anyone, saying, "I have never behaved aggressively toward anyone, and I have never done anything to hinder or harm anyone's career in any way. On the contrary, I have spent much of my half-century in the opera world supporting the industry and furthering the careers of countless singers."

The investigation launched by the Los Angeles Opera into the incidents at the house "deemed the allegations to be credible, in part because of the similarities in their accounts". The investigation "often found him to be sincere in his denials but found some of them to be less credible or lacking in awareness". The investigation criticized inadequate communication and lack of awareness about sexual harassment at the opera.

In his first interview since recovering from COVID-19, Domingo told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the charges were false. "When I knew that I had COVID, I promised myself that if I came out alive, I would fight to clear my name", Domingo said. "I never abused anyone. I will repeat that as long as I live."

Recordings

Complete operas and recital discs
Domingo has made over 200 recordings, most of which are full-length operas; he has recorded nearly all of opera's leading tenor roles, several of them more than once. As a teenager, he first appeared in very small parts on the Spanish-language original cast versions of the musicals My Fair Lady (1959) and Redhead (1960). In 1968, he released his first solo album, Recital of Italian Operatic Arias (also known as Bel Canto Domingo). The album, conducted by Nello Santi, received the Grand Prix du Disque. In 1969, Domingo's first recital album for RCA Red Seal was issued, and he recorded his first complete opera in the studio, Il trovatore, with Leontyne Price and Sherrill Milnes also for RCA, which would be his primary record label throughout the entire 1970s; RCA recorded Domingo, Milnes and Price together several more times, both in complete operas and recital discs. Domingo followed Il trovatore with a steady stream of complete recorded operas from the 1970s through the early years of the next century. Starting with Il tabarro in 1970, Les Troyens 1983 and ending with Edgar in 2006, Domingo has recorded all of Puccini's operatic roles for tenor. Among his albums is a box set of every major tenor aria Verdi composed, including several obscure and rarely performed versions in languages different from the original operas, and written only for specific performances. He has also recorded the vocal parts in many symphonic works and has conducted on some of his albums.
In August 2005, EMI Classics released a highly anticipated and publicized studio recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, in which Domingo and Operalia winner Nina Stemme sang the title roles. A review, headlined "Vocal perfections", in the 8 August 2005 issue of The Economist called the recording "monumental" and praised it for having "a musical lyricism and a sexual passion that make the cost and the effort entirely worthwhile". The review also characterized Domingo's July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre at Covent Garden as "unforgettable" and "luminous". More recently Domingo has appeared with Angela Gheorghiu on a recording of Fedora, an opera in which he often appeared onstage, and as the baritone in a live version of Giovanna d'Arco with Anna Netrebko. In September 2011, aged 70, he signed an exclusive record contract with Sony Classics.

Crossover albums
In addition to his classical recordings, Domingo has released numerous crossover albums. His output of non-operatic recordings accelerated after his pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), went gold and eventually platinum. His other recordings of popular music include My Life for a Song (1983), Save Your Nights for Me (1985), and the British gold record, Be My Love (1990). His English-language version of "Bésame Mucho" from My Life for a Song received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1984. The following year he won a Grammy in the same category for his collection of Ernesto Lecuona songs, Always in My Heart (Siempre en mi corazón). (He won a second Grammy the same year for Carmen under the baton of Lorin Maazel.) In 2012, he recorded Songs with Josh Groban, Susan Boyle, and jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr., among others. In 2015, he released a holiday album, My Christmas including duets with Idina Menzel, Jackie Evancho, Plácido Domingo Jr., The Piano Guys and others.

Since the early 1980s, Domingo has released several Latin albums, including two featuring the music of Mexican songwriter, Agustín Lara. He devoted two more of his albums, Adoro (1982) and 100 años de Mariachi (1999), solely to Mexican music. 100 años de Mariachi, a rancheras collection, went platinum in the United States and gold in Mexico. He later recalled that, as a fan of mariachi music since boyhood, the Grammy he won for 100 años de Mariachi was the award that meant the most to him of all he has received.

Appearances on film and television

Domingo has starred in several opera films. His three theatrical released opera movies from the 1980s received significant awards and recognitions, including Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. Zeffirelli's La Traviata and Otello both received Academy Award nominations, and the soundtracks of La Traviata and Rosi's Carmen won Grammy Awards for the Best Opera Recording of the year. Domingo has also made various opera films for television, including Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's Madama Butterfly with Mirella Freni, Gianfranco de Bosio's Tosca with Raina Kabaivanska, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's Tosca with Catherine Malfitano (Emmy Award), Franco Zeffirelli's Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, and more recently, Marco Bellocchio's .

Over the course of decades, he has sung in numerous Live from the Metropolitan Opera telecasts and Met radio broadcasts. He has also appeared often in televised performances from other opera houses. In 1978, he starred in the La Scala production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut that marked the house debut of Hungarian soprano Sylvia Sass. In addition, many of his concerts and zarzuela evenings have been televised. Beyond his filmed opera and concert performances, he has frequently made guest appearances on television. Domingo appeared on The Cosby Show Season 5 as Alberto Santiago, a colleague of Dr. Cliff Huxtable. In 1989, the international television series Return Journey featured Domingo returning to his home city of Madrid reflecting on life there whilst recording an album of Zarzuela arias for EMI. On the 1993 Academy Awards telecast, he performed the song, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul," from the movie The Mambo Kings, which had received a nomination for Best Original Song. The tenor was the first Spaniard to perform at an Academy Awards ceremony. He had previously presented the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with Faye Dunaway at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985.

Domingo was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed 1998 Mexican film The Other Conquest, produced by his son Alvaro and directed by Salvador Carrasco, in which Domingo also sang the original aria "Mater Aeterna", composed by Samuel Zyman with lyrics by Carrasco. He was also heard performing the song "In Pace", during the closing credits of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996). In 2008, Domingo provided the voice of the long-haired Chihuahua named Montezuma in Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua. He also appeared as Manolo's great-grandfather in the animated film The Book of Life in 2014.

Christmas in Vienna

In December 1992, Domingo collaborated with fellow operatic tenor and friend José Carreras and pop music legend Diana Ross in a televised Christmas-themed concert. Vienna was chosen to host the event due to its reputation as a capital of music and the particular charm of Austria during Christmas time. The Wiener Symphoniker under the direction of maestro Vjekoslav Šutej provided the orchestral music, and the Gumpoldskirchen Children's Choir provided choral vocals. On 23 December 1992, the first in what would turn out to be a series of Christmas in Vienna concerts was seen worldwide by several hundred million people. Plácido Domingo returned to Vienna for many more Christmas in Vienna concerts, performing with stars and friends of both pop and classical music, including Dionne Warwick, Charles Aznavour, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church, Natalie Cole, Riccardo Cocciante, Patricia Kaas, Luciano Pavarotti, Tony Bennett and others.

Cultural references

By the 1980s and 1990s, popular cultural forms, especially television programs, began to reference Domingo, often as a prototypical opera singer or as part of the influential Three Tenors. In 1987 Sesame Street, a U.S. children's television show that has been on the air since 1969, introduced a puppet character named after Domingo. In the series, Placido Flamingo was a pink singing bird who appeared regularly on "Live from the Nest" (a play on "Live from the Met") telecasts from the Nestropolitan Opera. In the 1989 special "Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting", Domingo appeared with his namesake puppet, singing "Look through the Window" together. The show never revived the character after the puppeteer, Richard Hunt, who provided the voice for Placido Flamingo, died in early 1992. Similarly, in the 2009 Australian-Canadian cartoon comedy Pearlie, the father of a family of opera singing fleas is named Placido. Although not opera related, one of the Three Emperors (a take-off on the Three Tenors) in the original Japanese version of the anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (2008-2011), is also named after the singer.

In 2007, Domingo had a cameo role on The Simpsons, the longest running American scripted prime time television series and winner of over thirty Emmy Awards. He provided the voice for an animated version of himself in the episode "The Homer of Seville", which revolves around Homer Simpson becoming an opera singer. After an opera performance, Homer chats with Domingo, who tells him to call him "P. Dingo" (a play on "P. Diddy") and asks him for singing advice. Although not providing voice-overs, he was also an animated character in a 1995 episode ("Three Tenors and You're Out") of the Warner Brothers children's cartoon, Animaniacs, and a 1999 episode ("Censoring Problems: The Three Stooges vs. The Three Tenors") of MTV's violent comedy, Celebrity Deathmatch.

Domingo, along with Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, loosely inspired the 2001 biting English-language film, Off Key, by Spanish director Manuel Gómez Pereira. The movie's leading character, Ricardo Palacios (played by Joe Mantegna), is a Spanish tenor with vague ties to Mexico, who plays the piano, conducts, seeks celebrity outside of the opera world, and is proud of his Otello. Like Domingo, he discovers new operatic talents, sings duets with pop singers, and performs mariachi music and tangos. The farcical plot, however, has nothing in common with actual occurrences in the lives of Domingo or his colleagues. The movie was the most expensive production in Spain's cinematic history to that point.

American author Elizabeth George references Domingo in one of her series of mystery novels about the fictional Inspector Lynley, This Body of Death (2010). In the book, Meredith's young daughter is an enthusiastic fan of Plácido Domingo and has the detective read to her from an unauthorized biography of the singer. The real-life Domingo was also mentioned as part of a running gag on the 1996 Seinfeld episode, "The Doll". Seinfeld was the second highest rated series on U.S. television at the time. He was also referenced several times throughout the sitcom series Everybody Loves Raymond as Raymond's mother, Marie's, favorite opera singer. In addition, the tenor has appeared on the cover of several opera-related books, as a key representative of the musical genre. Such mainstream allusions to Domingo illustrate his atypically widespread fame and cultural influence as an opera singer. His integration both as an actual performer and as an "image" into popular as well as high culture was so significant by 2011, Spanish author Rubén Amón wrote a book, Plácido Domingo: Un coloso en el teatro del mundo, specifically analyzing the singer as a cultural and sociological phenomenon.

Repertoire

Domingo has sung 151 roles in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and Russian. His main repertoire however is Italian (Otello; Cavaradossi in Tosca; Don Carlo; Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut; Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West; Radames in Aida); French (Don José in Carmen; Samson in Samson and Delilah; Énée in Les Troyens; Hoffmann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann); and German (Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Siegmund in Die Walküre). He has appeared in more operas by Giuseppe Verdi than any other composer. Domingo has created original roles in eight world premieres of operas, Vásquez's El último sueño, Moreno Torroba's El poeta, Menotti's Goya, García Abril's Divinas palabras, Cano's Luna, Drattell's Nicholas and Alexandra, Tan Dun's The First Emperor, and Catán's Il Postino, as well as one pasticcio, The Enchanted Island. He also performed in the U.S. premieres of Don Rodrigo and Cyrano de Bergerac. He continues to add more roles to his repertoire, most recently performing as Schicchi in Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi in September 2015.

After taking on baritone roles, he sang Conte Di Luna in Il Trovatore, an opera in which he previously performed as Manrico, a tenor role. His last major role in a full-length opera was in the title role of Nabucco in the production by Thaddeus Strassberger in December 2019 in Valencia. During the curtain call many supporters of the singer showed support by dropping flyers in support of the singer.

Awards and honors

Plácido Domingo has received many awards and honors for his achievement in the field of music and in recognition of his many benefit concerts and contributions to various charities. In 1978, when Domingo was only 37, the city of Madrid dedicated a commemorative plaque at his birthplace at 34 Calle Ibiza near the Buen Retiro Park.

The singer won his first Grammy Award in 1971 and has gone on to win eight more, as well as five Latin Grammy awards including an award for Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.

A Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates, he has received other major awards that include being made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.

In 2006, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

He has also received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (1992); Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2007); Commander of the French Légion d'honneur; Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle; Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Arts (1991); the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom; and in 2011, a Medal of Honour from Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman. The first Birgit Nilsson Prize was awarded to him in 2009.

In 2012, Domingo was voted into Gramophone's first Hall of Fame.

In April 2014, Domingo was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree by Berklee College of Music at its campus in Valencia, Spain. During his acceptance speech, Domingo said, "it is a great pleasure to have a connection between Boston and Valencia since both have been so important in my career." Domingo sang Handel's Messiah with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of his career, and performed his first Bohéme at the Palau de les Arts.

In June 2018, Iberia Airlines honored Domingo by placing his name on their first Airbus A350 delivered to the Airline.

Humanitarian works and initiatives

Domingo has been heavily involved in humanitarian efforts and volunteerism. He has given many benefit concerts for disaster relief, charities, and musical organizations, as well as served in various voluntary positions in the artistic and sports worlds. In 1986, Domingo performed at several benefit concerts to raise funds for the victims of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. He also released an album of one of the events for charity. On 21 August 2007, in recognition of his support of the earthquake victims, as well as his artistic works, a statue in his honor was unveiled. It was made in Mexico City from keys donated by the people. The statue, the work of Alejandra Zúñiga, is two meters tall, weighs about 300 kg (660 lbs) and is part of the "Grandes valores" (Great values) program.

Since the earthquake, Domingo has continued to do charitable work in Mexico and other countries. After Hurricane Pauline ravaged the Pacific coast of Southern Mexico in 1997, he gave two charity concerts in Acapulco to raise money to build 150 new houses for those made homeless by the storm. In December 2003, he performed in Cancún to benefit the Ciudad de la Alegria Foundation, which provides assistance and lodging to people in need, including low-income individuals, orphans, expectant mothers, immigrants, rehabilitated legal offenders, and the terminally ill. Outside of Mexico, Domingo and Katherine Jenkins performed in a charity concert in Athens on 27 June 2007 to raise funds to aid victims of the conflict in Darfur. The concert was organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

On 4 March 2006, Domingo sang at the New Orleans Opera Association's Gala Benefit Concert, "A Night For New Orleans", to help rebuild the city after it was partially destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Before the gala, he made the encouraging statement: "MUSIC IS THE VOICE OF HOPE!". Operalia winner Elizabeth Futral and several other popular opera singers appeared with the tenor. The Gala collected $700,000 for the city recovery fund. On 23 March 2008, the New Orleans City Council named the city theatre's stage in the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in Louis Armstrong Park the "Plácido Domingo stage", in honour of his contribution at the Gala Benefits Concert. Early the following year, Domingo performed with the New Orleans Opera in a gala reopening the theatre. At the time he told the press, "The restoration of New Orleans' Mahalia Jackson Theater is a symbol of new life for the city following the devastation of 2005, but in these difficult economic times, it is also a symbol of hope and faith in the future on the part of a forward-looking artistic organization."

In June 2010 Domingo became President of Europa Nostra, the Voice of Cultural Heritage in Europe, which helps to promote European high culture. The following year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter invited Domingo to join a council intended to clean up the football governing body, which had been accused of taking bribes from countries that wanted to stage the World Cup. Domingo has also supported environmental efforts. In 2007, he joined several other preeminent figures in entertainment, government, the environment and more, as one of the users of the BMW Hydrogen 7, designed to build support for hydrogen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Domingo also supports the Hear the World initiative as an ambassador to raise awareness for the topic of hearing and hearing loss.

Operalia and young artists programs

Domingo has especially tried to aid the development of young opera singers' careers. In 1993 he founded Operalia, The World Opera Competition, an international opera competition for talented young singers. The winners get the opportunity to be employed in opera ensembles around the world.

Several leading opera singers of recent years have won prizes in the competition, including Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Erwin Schrott, Giuseppe Filianoti, and José Cura. In particular, Domingo has performed frequently with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, who won three prizes at the 1999 Operalia competition.

Beyond Operalia, Domingo has been instrumental in giving many young artists encouragement and special attention, as in 2001, when he invited the so-called "Singing Policeman", New York tenor Daniel Rodríguez, to attend the Vilar-Domingo Young Artists program to develop his operatic skills.

In addition to the Vilar-Domingo Young Artists Program in Washington, D.C., Domingo has also started programs to train young opera singers at the Los Angeles Opera and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain.

In September 2016, he performed at a Los Angeles benefit for the Esperanza Azteca Los Angeles Youth Orchestra supporting young musicians from the Los Angeles area.

Writings

See also

 Bust of Plácido Domingo
 :Category:Plácido Domingo albums
List of best-selling Latin music artists

References

Notes

Citations

Cited sources

Other sources
Goodnough, David (1997). Plácido Domingo: Opera Superstar (Hispanic Biographies). Enslow Publishers.

External links

 Plácido Domingo – My Greatest Roles, collection of televised performances
 Plácido Domingo International Operalia Opera Singer Contest
 Discography, Deutsche Grammophon Classics
 History of the Tenor – sound clips and narration
 Placido Domingo performs arias from Andrea Chėnier, Abduction from the Seraglio, Carmen, Der Rosencavalier, Fidelio, Forza del destino, Otello, Samson et Dalila, Tales of Hoffmann, Tannhaeuser, Tosca, Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera on archive.org
 Recordings with Plácido Domingo in the Online Archive of the Österreichische Mediathek  Retrieved 3. November 2022

Biography, interviews and profiles
 Domingo's biography on the Kennedy Center's website at kennedy-center.org
 Peter Conrad, " 'I must live up to what people expect' ", The Observer (London), 9 July 2005 on guardian.co.uk.
 Martin Kettle, "A tenor no more: Domingo to make switch to baritone", The Guardian (London), 24 January 2007.
 Nahuel Lopez, "Oper ist teuer, Sänger sind billig" ("Opera is expensive, singers are cheap"), Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 17 March 2009. "Plácido Domingo about too small operas, casting singers as Paul Potts and the humility before a great career". (In German)
 Matthew Stadlen, "Plácido Domingo: 'I've done nothing to deserve this voice'", The Telegraph (London), 25 August 2013 on telegraph.co.uk. (Domingo and his career at age 72)

1941 births
20th-century Spanish male opera singers
21st-century conductors (music)
21st-century Spanish male opera singers
Commanders of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco)
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
English-language singers from Spain
Grammy Award winners
Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit
Grand Crosses of the Order of Prince Henry
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic

Latin Grammy Award winners
Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year honorees
Living people
Male conductors (music)
National Conservatory of Music of Mexico alumni
Opera managers
Operalia, The World Opera Competition
Order of Arts and Letters of Spain recipients
Österreichischer Kammersänger
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
Recipients of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise
Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Recipients of the National Order of the Cedar
Recipients of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Singers from Madrid
Spanish conductors (music)
Spanish operatic baritones
Spanish operatic tenors
Spanish people of Basque descent
The Three Tenors
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Singers awarded knighthoods
National Arts Club Medal of Honor Recipients
Kennedy Center honorees
Spanish male singers

Plácido Domingo


Red Fork is a community in Southwest Tulsa.  It was founded in 1883 as a railhead on the Arkansas River. It is famous for being the location of the first oil well in Tulsa County, the Sue A. Bland #1.

Naming of the town
The town is sometimes said to have been named for the Cimarron River, but both forks there are far upstream and both are reddish. The river through Tulsa is a not a fork but a merger of the Cimmaron, but it is the reddish fork of the Arkansas from where it joins the normally blue-green Verdigris River downstream.  The contrast in color was striking to early explorers coming upstream, and resulted in the naming of the river.

Early days
Red Fork originally was on what was to become Route 66, stretching back to Lookout Mountain and west towards Berryhill. After the oil discovery, it looked like Red Fork might outdo Tulsa, but Tulsa boosters succeeded in attracting new people and businesses there. Also, Red Fork was limited in size by the bend of the river and by the steep hills. Tulsa annexed Red Fork on October 16, 1927, and in 1928 the post office lost its separate status and became Red Fork Station (now West Tulsa Station) of the Tulsa Post Office.

The Sue A. Bland #1
The Sue A. Bland #1 well was drilled by Drs. J.C.W. Bland and Fred S. Clinton in Red Fork.  The well was on the homestead allotment of Dr. Bland's wife, Sue A. Bland, a Creek citizen.  The well struck oil on 24 June 1901, and brought nationwide publicity and an oil speculation to the Tulsa region and Indian Territory.

Town institutions
While mostly residential, Red Fork is home to television station KTUL (Channel 8); a unique; railroad-themed restaurant; an award-winning bed and breakfast in a 120-year-old rock home; Route 66-related businesses; historic schools; a BNSF railroad yard; and a popular Tulsa Park recreation center.  Nearby are two colleges; a major Tulsa regional library; and oil and transportation-related businesses, among others.

Red Fork was once home to the Crystal City Amusement Park featuring a giant swimming pool and Tulsa's original, giant "Zingo Roller Coaster".  The privately owned park was built in 1929, but went out of business in the 1950s, after both the Casa Loma bath house and dance hall buildings burned down.

See also
 Glenn Pool Oil Reserve

References

External links
 Southwest Tulsa
 Parks and Rec
 Education

Geography of Tulsa, Oklahoma
Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma
Former municipalities in Oklahoma

Red Fork, Oklahoma


The Everard Ranges is a mountain range in northern South Australia. It consists of low rounded granite hills, topped with bare rock. The rock is from the Palaeocene period, between 20 and 60 million years ago. The range is segmented, with several monoliths and bornhardts separated from the hills by valleys. The valleys are filled with scrub, and the range is surrounded by Tertiary plains. The plains around it are about 550 metres above sea level.

The Everard Ranges are part of the traditional homeland of the Yankunytjatjara people. However, today most of the people living in and around the area are Pitjantjatjara. There are several caves and overhangs with Aboriginal rock paintings. The community of Mimili is located in the east of the range, about 22 km east of the centre.

The Everard Ranges were named by Ernest Giles after Everard Park, a large cattle station that covered the eastern part of the range (it is now the community of Mimili).

Other websites
Caring for country in South Australia's Everard Ranges

Mountain ranges of Australia
Mountains of South Australia

Everard Ranges


Amado Vera Hernandez (September 13, 1903 – March 24, 1970), was a Filipino writer and labor leader who was known for his criticism of social injustices in the Philippines and was later imprisoned for his involvement in the communist movement. He was the central figure in a landmark legal case that took 13 years to settle.

He was born in Tondo, Manila, to parents Juan Hernandez from Hagonoy, Bulacan and Clara Vera of Baliuag, Bulacan.  He grew up and studied at the Gagalangin, Tondo, the Manila High School and at the American Correspondence School.

Career as a Writer
While still a teenager, he began writing in Tagalog for the newspaper Watawat (Flag). He would later write a column for the Tagalog publication Pagkakaisa (Unity) and become the youngest patnugot (editor) of Mabuhay (Long Live) at the age of 28.

His writings gained the attention of Tagalog literati and some of his stories and poems were included in anthologies, such as Clodualdo del Mundo's Parolang Ginto and Alejandro Abadilla's Talaang Bughaw.

In 1922, at the age of 19, Hernandez became a member of the literary society Aklatang Bayan which included noted Tagalog writers Lope K. Santos and Jose Corazon de Jesus.

In 1932, he married the Filipino actress Atang de la Rama. Both of them would later be recognized as National Artists: Hernandez for Literature, de la Rama for Theater, Dance and Music.

World War II
Hernandez joined the resistance movement when the Japanese invaded in the Philippines in 1941. He was an intelligence operative of the guerilla outfit of Marking and Anderson, whose operations covered Bulacan and the Sierra Madre mountains, throughout the Second World War.

While he was a guerilla, Hernandez came in contact with guerillas of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) which was founded by Luis Taruc and other communist ideologues continued by the Philippine Commonwealth troops entered in Bulacan. It is believed that this was when Hernandez developed sympathies, if not belief, with the communist movement.

Labor leader
After the war, President Sergio Osmeña appointed him councilor of Manila during the reconstruction of the war-devastated city. He also became president of the defunct Philippine Newspaper Guild in coordination with its editor in chief, Narjeey Larasa. During this time he published articles on landlordism, collaboration with the Japanese, the reintroduction of American armed forces and the execution of guerilla leaders.

But his most significant activities after the war involved organizing labor unions across the country through the labor federation Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO). Influenced by the philosophy of Marx he advocated revolution as a means of change. On May 5, 1947, he led the biggest labor strike to hit Manila at that time. The following year, he became president of the CLO and led another massive labor demonstration on May 1948.

In 1950, the Philippine military started a crackdown against the communist movement, which was had sparked open rebellion in some areas on Luzon island, and the CLO headquarters was raided on January 20, 1951. Hernandez was arrested on January 1951 along with several trade union leaders in Manila on the suspicion that he was among the leaders of the rebellion.

Imprisonment
Though the authorities could not find evidence to charge him; For six months, he was transferred from one military camp to another and it took nearly a year before he was indicted on a charge of rebellion with murder, arson and robbery - a complex crime unheard of in Philippine legal history.

The case stirred the interest of civil rights activists in the Philippines and Hernandez was assisted at various times by legal luminaries like Senator Claro M. Recto, former President José P. Laurel and Claudio Teehankee, who would later become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. But he remained in prison while his appeal was pending.

It was while he was imprisoned that he wrote his most notable works. He wrote Isang Dipang Langit (A Stretch of Heaven), which later won a Republic Cultural Heritage Award, and Bayang Malaya (Free Nation), which later won a Balagtas Award. Also written in prison was his masterpiece Luha ng Buwaya (Tears of the Crocodile). Portions of his novel Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey) was also written while he was at the New Bilibid Prison. He also edited the prison's newspaper Muntinglupa Courier.

After five years of imprisonment, the Supreme Court allowed Hernandez to post bail on June 20, 1956. He then resumed his journalistic career and wrote a column for the Tagalog tabloid Taliba. He would later be conferred awards in prestigious literary contests, like the Commonwealth Literary Contest (twice), Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards (four times) and journalism awards given by the National Press Club of the Philippines (four times).

On May 30, 1964, the Supreme Court acquitted Hernandez in a decision that would be a landmark in Philippine jurisprudence. The case People of the Philippines vs. Amado V. Hernandez is now a standard case study in Philippine law schools.

Hernandez continued to write and teach after his acquittal. He was teaching at the University of the Philippines when he died on March 24, 1970. The University of the Philippines posthumously conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa on March 14, 1972. The Ateneo de Manila University awarded him its first Tanglaw ng Lahi award. He was posthumously honored as National Artist for Literature in 1973. Together with poet José García Villa, Hernández was the first to receive the title in literature.

Works

Novels
His socio-political novels were based on his experiences as a guerrilla, as a labour leader and as a political detainee.

Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey),1969.
Luha Ng Buwaya (Crocodile's Tears), 1972.
Pili sa Pinili (Chosen from the Selected), 1964.

Poems
 Isang Dipang Langit (An Arm-Stretch of Sky),
 Panata sa Kalayaan (Pledge to Freedom) - this poem is carved on his marble headstone April 22, 1952
 Ang Mga Kayamanan ng Tao
 Ang Dalaw Kay Silaw
 Bartolina
 Kung Tuyo Na ang Luha Mo Aking Bayan (When Your Tears Have Dried, My Country)
 Bayang Malaya
 Ang Taong Kapos
 Bayani
 Sa Batang Walang Bagong Damit
 Isang Sining ng Pagbigkas
 Ang Panday
 Inang Wika
 Ang Tao
 Ang Aklasan

Essays
Si Atang at ang Dulaan (Atang and the Theater)
Si Jose Corazon de Jesus at ang Ating Panulaan (Jose Corazon de Jesus and Our Poetry)

Awards and nominations

References

Sources
 National Historical Institute, Filipinos in History'' 5 vols. (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1995)
Amado V. Hernandez

People from Bulacan
People from Tondo, Manila
Manila City Council members
Filipino writers
Writers from Manila
1903 births
1970 deaths
Filipino communists
Burials at the Manila North Cemetery
Inmates of the New Bilibid Prison
Academic staff of the University of the Philippines
Filipino journalists

Amado V. Hernandez