Domingo leaving WNO

Plácido Domingo will relinquish leadership of the Washington National Opera at the end of the current season. The famed tenor was named artistic director of the WNO (then the Washington Opera) in 1996, became its general director in 2003, and has sung and conducted regularly with the company.

The Washington Post's Anne Midgette reports that Domingo told the WNO board that his departure allows "the company to go in new directions, including studying the possibility of a merger with the Kennedy Center," an option first publicly aired in July:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/27/AR2010092704532.html?hpid=topnews

Domingo last week renewed his contract as general director of the Los Angeles Opera through 2013.