MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Tuesday with opera greats Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo ahead of their charity concert in Moscow – which, he said, he would be unlikely to attend.
“There’s no musical instrument like the human voice, and your instruments are unique,” Putin told the two Spanish tenors at a meeting in his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.
But when invited to their show on Wednesday, he declined, saying he has a joint summit of three interconnected regional blocs comprising post-Soviet republics lined up for the day.
“Nothing but work until 12 a.m., probably. A pity the two events clash,” Putin said.
The president hopes to catch Carreras and Domingo live elsewhere in the world during some foreign visit in the unspecified future, Putin’s press service said, Lifenews.ru tabloid reported.
Carreras, 65, and Domingo, 71, the two surviving members of the Three Tenors trio, will perform at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral for the benefit of disabled children and children from poor families.
The venue gained notoriety earlier this year after feminist punk band Pussy Riot performed there an anti-Kremlin song that landed three of them in prison. Unlike Pussy Riot, however, Carreras and Domingo will be singing in a special concert hall, not before the altar.
Putin has dabbled in music himself, sitting down at the piano at a charity concert in 2010 to plink out a Soviet patriotic song and then crooning old jazz standard “Blueberry Hill.”
