Fellow tenors' absence saddens Placido Domingo

It was the first World Cup in 16 years they didn't perform together.
BERLIN (AP) -- Placido Domingo's eyes filled with water and his voice choked with emotion. He was singing ahead of the World Cup soccer final, and his frequent partner was ailing.
After performing with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras as The Three Tenors before four World Cup finals over 16 years, Domingo was joined by tenor Rolando Villazon and soprano Anna Netrebko for Friday night's concert at Berlin's Waldbuehne, just down the street from Olympiastadion.
It was exactly 16 years to the night that The Three Tenors performed for the first time at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Earlier Friday, Pavarotti's manager announced the 70-year tenor had undergone surgery in New York for pancreatic cancer.
Domingo learned of the operation on Thursday night, and he kept thinking of his friend during the opening vocal number, Cilea's "Lamento di Federico." During Domingo's final solo encore, Sorozabal's "No puede ser," his eyebrows pinched down as his eyes again got watery.
"When I was singing the last aria, I couldn't help being quite sad, thinking that Luciano is in this moment suffering," Domingo said. "It was very, very emotional."
The Three Tenors popularized classical music with concerts that purists looked down on as trashy. They sang 34 of the shows from 1990 through 2003, but with Pavarotti and Carreras singing only limited dates these days, they weren't scheduled to appear together at this World Cup. Pavarotti's manager, Terri Robson, said he turned down the chance to sing with Netrebko at the World Cup because he already was committed to a performance in Britain.
Their 1990 concert came about after Carreras recovered from leukemia.
"There has been some talking by Jose if we can get together again," Domingo said. "The most important thing is to get dates together. If that happens, it will be to my joy. Once we did it when Jose was feeling bad. It would be very nice to be able to do it for Luciano."
This year's concert was in a 20,000-seat amphitheater, with the Murellen Mountain behind the stage. Netrebko and Villazon, opera's hottest young duo, injected some pizzaz into the format of arias, duets and Broadway show tunes.
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