Plácido Domingo is taking leave of Washington National Opera in a grand way this month, both on the stage as Oreste in a riveting production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride and at the podium.

The news spread quickly last night: after much speculation about Plácido Domingo’s future with Washington National Opera, the legendary tenor announced he would retire as the company’s artistic director at the end of his current contract in June 2011.

Plácido Domingo (Bajazet) in Tamerlano, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)For a few years, reports have been coming from Europe of major opera houses pairing up with historically informed performance (HIP) ensembles to present Baroque operas. Such residencies combine the staging power of a full-time opera company, as well as major opera singers, with the musical specialization of a well-established early music group and its regular conductor. Washington National Opera experimented with…