José Carreras
José Carreras Coll (
Catalan:
Josep Carreras i Coll) (born
December 5,
1946) is a
Catalan Spanish operatic
tenor.
Carreras was born in
Barcelona,
Spain, and exhibited musical talent from a young age. At age eight, he also gave his first public performance, singing
La Donna e Mobile on Spanish national radio. At eleven, he appeared at the
Liceu as a boy
soprano in the role of the narrator in
Falla's
El retablo de Maese Pedro and an urchin in the second act of
La bohème. In his teens, Carreras studied at the
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. He made his debut at the Liceu as Flavio in
Norma, coming to the attention of the famous
soprano Montserrat Caballé, who sang the title role. She invited him to sing in a production of
Donizetti's
Lucrezia Borgia, his first major breakthrough.
Carreras also sang with Caballé in his
1971 London stage debut at age 24, a concert performance of
Maria Stuarda. In subsequent years, the two singers sang in more than fifteen different operas together.
In
1972, he made his American debut as Pinkerton in
Madame Butterfly. In
1974, he made his debut at the
Vienna State Opera as the Duke of Mantua, as Alfredo in
La Traviata at the
Royal Opera House and as Cavaradossi in
Tosca at the
Metropolitan Opera. The following year, Carreras made his debut at
La Scala as Riccardo in
Un Ballo in Maschera. By the age of 28, Carreras had sung the lead tenor in twenty-four different operas.
In
1987, at the height of his career, Carreras was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic
leukemia and was given a 1 in 10 chance of survival. After enduring almost a year of treatment including radiation, chemotherapy, and an
autologous bone marrow transplant, he was able to resume his singing career.
In
1988, he founded the
José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation, a charity which gives financial support to leukemia research and the registration of bone marrow donors.
In
1990, hundreds of millions of people around the world watched
The Three Tenors (Carreras,
Plácido Domingo, and
Luciano Pavarotti) give a concert at the opening of the
World Cup in
Rome. It was originally conceived to raise money for Carreras' foundation and also as a way for his colleagues,
Domingo and
Pavarotti, to welcome their colleague back to the world of opera.
In addition to opera, Carreras has also performed lighter genres such as
zarzuela. He also recorded
West Side Story with conductor
Leonard Bernstein.
Carreras is particularly admired for his
Verdi and
Puccini roles.
In the
Seinfeld television series, Seinfeld and his friends can remember the names of Pavarotti and Domingo, but constantly forget the name of Carreras and instead repeatedly refer to him as “the other guy.” The exception is the character Bob “The Maestro” Cobb, who refers to him as his idol and to his fellow tenors,
Luciano Pavarotti and
Plácido Domingo, as “those two other guys.”
*
Official website of José Carreras*
José Carreras unofficial fan website*
José Carreras unofficial website with some recordings
