José Carreras

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. During the 1970s, Carreras's collaborations with fiery Hungarian soprano Sylvia Sass - both on stage and in the recording studio - were among the highlights of his amazing career. 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. Since 1995, he has presented a yearly live televised benefit gala concert in Leipzig to raise funds for the foundation. Over 62 million euros have been raised by this event. Star guests in the 2006 gala will be Udo Jürgens, Paul Young, Robin Gibb, Peter Maffay, Udo Lindenberg, Rosenstolz, Evelin, Klaus Meine, Ben, Annett Louisan, Stefan Gwildis and Nina Hagen, accompanied by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of Scott Lawton. 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 mostly admired for his Verdi and Puccini roles.