I was married less the two months after I turned 19. Crazy, yes? But read this:

He married at just 16 and his wife, Ana Maria Guerra Cue, gave birth to their son Jose a year later. Aged 17, Placido had a family to support, so he began to work as a jobbing musician. The dizzying range of activities he then undertook helped to set up his lifelong pattern of tireless hard work and multi-tasking wizardry.

Wow.

The bigger news is something Jessica Duchen quotes in her article:

“I’ve been moving on stage all my life and I can still manage long rehearsal periods, so I feel fine in the right repertoire,” he told me. But he went on to say: “I just don’t want to go further than I should. I suppose there’s a certain limit: I don’t want to be 70 and still singing opera. I don’t think I will still be singing on 21 January 2011, which is my 70th birthday.”

Hmmm. I wonder if he still thinks this way, or if he said this after his cancer and now is changing his mind. In any case, I’m hoping he’ll be keeping his appointment on November second of 2010 with San Francisco Opera, because Dan (my husband of 34 1/2 years at this point) and I will be there.