Domingo and Villazon together: is this a good idea?

I just heard that the Los Angeles Opera has commissioned a new opera based on the film Il Postino, to premiere in 2009. It will be written by Mexican composer Daniel Catán (best known for Florencia en Amazonas, a recent operatic composition that has had wonderful reviews, good audience response, a complete recording, and probably most importantly, multiple revivals) and star Placido Domingo, who will create the role of Pablo Neruda, and Rolando Villazon, who will create the title role of Mario, Neruda's personal postman.

I have some skepticism here. I probably won't be able to make any kind of reasonable judgement of the opera until I both hear more of Catán's work and see the movie the opera is based on (and maybe even read some Neruda!), but I wonder if this is a good idea. Vocally, Villazon is so close to Domingo that he might as well be a clone, and I think that this is the main reason (plus the fact that he is Not Roberto Alagna) that he is getting so much gush. More to the point, I don't think there will be enough vocal contrast between the two singers. If the tenors were portraying father and son, that might work. It might have been a better idea to have a baritone sing Mario, or perhaps to have in the role one of Domingo's other Spanish-speaking protegès, such as Aquiles Machado or Tito Beltran, both of whom have lighter and more lyric voices than Domingo or Villazon.

And yes, folks, we all know that Placido Domingo is in fabulous voice for a man his age. He's in pretty darned good voice for a man half his age. As blasphemous as others may deem this, I think that he should retire now while he is still in such good voice and we're all saying "Placido! Why did you leave us? We love you!" rather than "Luciano, go away already!" And frankly, he's in the way of a lot of younger tenors - at the rate he's going, he probably won't retire until Roberto Alagna and Ramon Vargas and Marcello Giordani and Jose Cura and Marcelo Alvarez are close to or even past 50, and poor Ben Heppner nearly 60. I think the reason that Villazon (and possibly Juan Diego Flòrez) might prevail in these artificially created "tenor wars" is that they are the only ones young enough not to be swallowed up by Domingo's shadow.

Nevertheless, there is something to be said for star power - almost certainly this will lead to a sold out house and possibly a recording of the opera. I must admit the concept is intriguing, and I do like both singers. And as always, I'd much rather see a singer, even one I don't always like, have a triumph than fail and have nasty people tittering behind their back. Most importantly, the more new operas get performed, the greater chance that at least one of them will be worthy of becoming a classic of the new century.