Cautionary note on cancer

Placido Domingo is back, ready to sing around the world.

But first, the star tenor opened his new Manhattan restaurant – four weeks after colon cancer surgery.

“I was lucky to have the pain,” said the 69-year-old Spaniard, who was forced to interrupt a busy international concert schedule after experiencing severe abdominal pain.

That spurred him to fly to New York, where his physician quickly delivered the diagnosis: a malignant polyp in the colon.

“And he said, ‘There’s no way you’re going on to London!’ ” Domingo said.

Instead, the cancerous tissue was surgically removed March 2.

Looking rested and tanned, Domingo chatted during a private opening party last Monday for the new East Side restaurant Zengo, which he co-owns with restaurateur Richard Sandoval.

Amid talk of tapas and tequila, he addressed a much more serious subject: colonoscopies.

“Every person in this world should have a colonoscopy!” said Domingo, who had never had one before. “I want to say to people, just do it!!”

In the early stages, people with colon cancer often have no symptoms at all – one reason doctors recommend screening.

Domingo said he was simply lucky, and when his cancer was caught it had not spread.

He said he did not require chemotherapy or radiation, just a six-week break from singing during which he rested at his Manhattan apartment and his home in Acapulco, Mexico.

Domingo flew to Italy later in the week to rehearse Verdi’s opera “Simon Boccanegra” at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, where he’ll be singing the title role for six performances starting Friday.

He’s still catching up with the mounds of get-well mail he received.

“I am just so thankful for the demonstrations of love that were unbelievable,” Domingo said.

He said one man who had heard him in every major role he ever sang wrote, “Rest well, for your most important role – yourself.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Joel Grey is 78. Actress Louise Lasser is 71. Actor Meshach Taylor (“Designing Women”) is 63. Actor Bill Irwin is 60. Singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 53. Singer Lisa Stansfield is 44. Rapper David Banner is 36. Singer Joss Stone is 23.