Oralia Dominguez is a Mexican opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

 who has performed at many of the world's leading opera house

Opera house

An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

s.

She was born in the city of San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí, commonly called SLP or simply San Luis, is the capital of, and most populous city in the Mexican state of the same name. The city lies at an elevation of 1,850 meters...

 in northern Mexico and studied at the National Conservatory of Music

National Conservatory of Music (Mexico)

The National Conservatory of Music of Mexico is a music conservatory located in the Polanco section of Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico.-History:...

 where she made the acquaintance of the composer Carlos Chavez

Carlos Chávez

Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six Symphonies, his Symphony No...

 who championed her career. She made her professional stage debut at the Mexico City Opera in 1950.

In 1951 she sang the role of Amneris in Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

 for the first time at the Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...

 in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 with Maria Callas

Maria Callas

Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...

, Mario del Monaco

Mario del Monaco

Mario Del Monaco was an Italian tenor who is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th century....

 and Giuseppe Taddei

Giuseppe Taddei

Giuseppe Taddei was an Italian baritone, who performed mostly the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi....

 under the direction of Italian conductor Oliviero De Fabritiis

Oliviero De Fabritiis

Oliviero De Fabritiis was an Italian conductor and composer.Born in Rome, where he studied with Refice and Setaccialo. He made his debut at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome in 1920, and later moved to the Teatro Adriano. He was artistic secretary at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from 1932 until 1943...

. A recording of this performance has circulated since that time and is still regarded as one of the most exciting performances of this very popular opera on record.

She made her European debut in 1953 at London's Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...

. In the same year she first appeared at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, in Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...

, and performed with the company in Verdi's Requiem at the Lucerne Festival

Lucerne Festival

- History :The festival was founded in 1938 with a series of concerts in the gardens of Wagner's villa conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who had formed an orchestra with members of different orchestras and soloists for the concert...

. She recorded the Requiem the following year under the direction of Victor de Sabata

Victor de Sabata

Victor de Sabata was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. He is also acclaimed for his interpretations of orchestral music...

. In 1954, she appeared throughout Europe with such conductors as Tullio Serafin

Tullio Serafin

-Biography:Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19th century bel canto operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti to become staples of 20th century repertoire...

, Igor Markevitch

Igor Markevitch

Igor Markevitch was a Ukrainian, Italian, and French composer and conductor.- Origin :Igor Markevich was born in Kiev, to an old family of Ukrainian Cossack starshyna ennobled in the 18th century...

, Paul Kletzki

Paul Kletzki

Paul Kletzki was a Polish conductor and composer.Born Paweł Klecki in Łódź, Poland, he later adopted the German spelling Paul Kletzki. He joined its Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fifteen. After serving in the First World War, he studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw before moving...

 and Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...

. In 1955, she made her debut at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

 Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

 singing the role of Madame Sosostris in the world premiere of Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...

's The Midsummer Marriage

The Midsummer Marriage

The Midsummer Marriage is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard...

. Also in England, she appeared at Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...

 in the late 1950s as Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri

L'italiana in Algeri

L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...

 and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff

Falstaff (opera)

Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...

, and at Covent Garden in the latter role in 1967-8.

Recordings

She performed the role of Erda in von Karajan's recording of Wagner's Ring

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...

 with the Berlin Philharmonic. Her other recordings include Aida, La Gioconda, Il tabarro, Verdi's Requiem, Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, De Falla's El amor brujo and a recital of arias made early in her career by Deutsche Grammophon which has been reissued.