Placido Flamingo

PERFORMER	Richard Hunt
DESIGN	Richard Termine designer & builder

Placido Flaming and his namesake, Plácido Domingo, in Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting.

Richard Hunt with the Placidos.

Placido Flamingo's "cameo" in Episode 4195.

Placido Flamingo is an operatic flamingo from Sesame Street whose performances at the Nestropolitan Opera are seen in the "Live from the Nest" series. He is based on the famous tenor, Plácido Domingo. Placido is proud of his talents and not averse to the sound of his own voice. The character was first introduced in Season 18, and helped to introduce classical music into the series. The character was created by writer Mark Saltzman.

Though retired in 1992, along with most of Richard Hunt's other characters, Placido Flamingo is still frequently cited in articles about opera appreciation, as an effective and influential early introduction to opera, ranking with the Bugs Bunny short What's Opera Doc? (1957).

Sketches

• "The Bathtub of Seville"
• "The Bugs in Your Neighborhood"
• "The Dentist of Seville"
• "Don't Forget to Watch the Movie"
• "Italian Street Song": Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa leads a symphony of animals, and soloist Placido Flamingo, in the "Italian Street Song" from Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta (about a princess who trades places with her maid in order to avoid an arranged marriage).
• "Look Through the Window" with Placido Domingo in Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting.
• "Lost Toy Opera"
• "Naughty Door Opera"
• "Peligro"
• "The Perfect Thing"
• "The Spider's Feelings": An operatic retelling of "The Eency Weency Spider."
• "The Telephone of Brazil"
• "Two Owls and One Pink Flamingo Blues" with Hoots the Owl and Athena
• "Up and Down Opera" with Ernie

Book appearances

• Big Bird Presents the Nutcracker (1990)
• Grover's Overtures (1991)
• What Do You Do? (1992 edition)