Nikolai Schukoff will replace him as Parsifal in performances on April 1, 5, and 8. A performance scheduled for July 8 as part of the Munich Opera Festival has been canceled; instead, the company said, Domingo would appear in a gala Wagner concert with Waltraud Meier and Ren_ Pape. Music director Kent Nagano will conduct.

The English-language notice on the Bavarian State Opera web site announcing the change also said that Domingo "will be retiring from the stage in the foreseeable future," but a spokesperson later said that it had been poorly translated from the original German and was not intended to suggest that the tenor's retirement was imminent.

This is not the first indication that Domingo would give up the role of Parsifal. In March, the tenor dropped out of a Zurich performance of the opera that was scheduled for April 23. At the time, the Zurich Opera said that he would be giving up the role, but Edgar Vincent, Domingo's longtime New York representative, denied that he had dropped it entirely. Vincent was not immediately available for comment today.

It was while singing Parsifal in December—in Robert Wilson's Los Angeles Opera production—that Domingo developed the inflamed throat that sidelined him for three months this past season.

There was a further complication involving the April performances in Munich: They were scheduled for some of the same days as Washington Opera's Die Walk‹re, in which Domingo is scheduled to sing the role of Siegmund. A spokesperson for Washington National Opera confirmed today that the company still expects him to appear.