The LA Opera’s new season begins this weekend with a romantic opera "La Boheme." But there's a storm cloud looming overhead. The company’s director and star, Plácido Domingo, is accused of sexual harassment by more than a dozen women who say he touched them, kissed them, and called them late at night. Melinda McLain was a production coordinator at the LA Opera in the 1980s, and says she witnessed Domingo’s behavior.

"I saw him at least once grab one of the supernumeraries and just lay a kiss on her, and in her shock she just sort of backed up," she said. "I also had young singers come and seek advice about how to repel his advances, and older, principal singers were concerned about their own marriages because of the inappropriate touching."



Melinda McLain in 1988. Photo credit: Junior Bridge.