Plácido Domingo will sing the role of Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at the Metropolitan Opera for six performances in February 2009, replacing Marcelo Álvarez, who, as we heard before, is jumping into the title role in the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore.

As the press release from the Met notes, “With these performances of Adriana Lecouvreur, Domingo returns to the role of his Met debut, forty years ago on September 28, 1968. Since then, Domingo has only sung the role of Maurizio once at the Met, in 1983.”

And, wouldn’t you know it, there’s YouTube documentation of that performance. Not only does Domingo sing “L’anima ho stanca,” he even kvells a bit with Beverly Sills, the Renée Fleming of her day.

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