Well wishers at the party included City Council members and Virginia Williams, the mother of Washington's mayor and a former opera singer, who presented Domingo with an official ceremonial resolution.

Members of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Program, one of Domingo's educational programs, sang the toasting song Libiamo from Verdi's La traviata.

Domingo was forced to cancel a performance of Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac at the Metropolitan Opera on January 26 due to tracheitis, a bacterial infection of the trachea, but was well enough to travel to Washington and to conduct Rigoletto at the Met on January 28.