Placido Domingo has distinguished himself as one of the most important tenors of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although originally having sung as a light baritone in Spanish zarzuelas, musicals, and operettas, Domingo made his opera debut in the tenor role of Alfredo in La Traviata in 1959. After a stint with the Israeli National Opera, he quickly rose to the top echelons of the opera world. He has starred in innumerable recordings and filmed opera performances and is particularly noted for the great variety of his opera repertoire, which includes operas in Italian, French, German, Russian, English, and Spanish. Domingo is renowned for his musicality and has made a second career as a conductor and director of two opera houses in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. He has also helped bring opera to the masses as a member of the Three Tenors with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras.