Last week, three days before turning 69, superstar tenor Placido Domingo appeared at the Metropolitan Opera at in title role of Verdi’s opera “Simon Boccanegra.” The reviews have been largely positive. Yet other singers have much less success with vocal preservation. Today, we look at how aging effects the voice, and why vocal longevity is admired in some cultures (India, for example) while in others, the vocal retirement age is quite young.

Joining us to explore this question is Sasha Frere-Jones, pop music critic of the New Yorker; Sheila Jordan, a veteran jazz singer; and Marlena Malas, who teaches opera students at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.

This is a repeat edition of Soundcheck.