José Carreras

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Lore & Background

Carreras showed an early talent for music, which intensified at age six when he saw Mario Lanza in *The Great Caruso*. After the film, he sang arias incessantly, especially 'La donna è mobile,' often locking himself in the family's bathroom when his family became exasperated. At age eight, he gave his first public performance, singing 'La donna è mobile' on Spanish National Radio, accompanied by Magda Prunera on piano. On 3 January 1958, at age eleven, he made his debut at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu as the boy soprano Trujamán in *El retablo de Maese Pedro*. His first principal adult role was Gennaro in Donizetti's *Lucrezia Borgia* on 19 December 1970, with Montserrat Caballé, who became a key supporter. By age 28, he had sung the tenor lead in 24 different operas and had an exclusive recording contract with Philips, resulting in recordings of less-performed Verdi operas like *Il Corsaro*, *I due Foscari*, *La battaglia di Legnano*, *Un giorno di regno*, and *Stiffelio*. In 1986, he portrayed the 19th-century Spanish tenor Julián Gayarre in the film *Romanza Final*.

Reader's Guide

Carreras's significance lies in his extensive operatic career spanning over 60 roles and his role in popularizing opera through the Three Tenors concerts, which began in 1990 at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, originally conceived to raise money for his leukemia foundation. He also established the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation after his own recovery from acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1988, following treatment involving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and an autologous bone marrow transplant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. His legacy includes recordings of less-performed Verdi operas and collaborations with conductors like Herbert von Karajan, with whom he first sang in the Verdi Requiem at Salzburg on 10 April 1976. His final operatic performances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu were in *Samson et Dalila* in March 2001.

Did You Know?

• Carreras made his operatic debut at age 11 as Trujamán in Manuel de Falla's *El retablo de Maese Pedro* at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
• He studied chemistry at the University of Barcelona for two years before leaving to concentrate on singing.
• During the filming of *La Bohème* in Paris, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and given a 1-in-10 chance of survival.
• The first Three Tenors concert in 1990 was originally conceived to raise money for Carreras's leukemia foundation.
• He recorded the Argentine folk mass *Misa Criolla* in 1987, conducted by its composer Ariel Ramírez, bringing the work to a worldwide audience.