Josep Maria Carreras i Coll was born on December 5, 1946, in Barcelona,
Spain. His father was the owner of a small chemical plant. Young
Carreras showed early interest in music after seeing
Mario Lanza in the film
Der große Caruso (1951) at the
age of 6. He gave his first public performance on the Spanish National
Radio at the age of 8. At that time, he began his piano and solfeggio
studies. His parents had a season subscription at the Liceo Opera, and
young Carreras with his brother became regular opera goers. He studied
chemistry on the insistence of his father. At the age of 17, he started
taking voice lessons from Jaime Francisco Puig in Conservatorio
Superior de Musica del Liceo in Barcelona. He also excelled in sports
having tennis as a hobby. Jose Carreras and his wife Mercedes were
married in Barcelona cathedral In May of 1971, the couple has two sons.
Carreras made his debut at the age of 18, as Flavio in Norma by
Vincenzo Bellini , where his stage
partner was Montserrat Caballé in the
title role. The two singers made a steady duet for the next fifteen
opera productions. Caballe invited Carreras to sing the part of Gennaro
in Lucrezia Borgia by
Gaetano Donizetti in Teatre Liceo.
That role became the first major breakthrough for the young tenor.
Carreras won the International Verdi Lyrical song contest in Parma in
1971. He made his London debut in 1971 with Caballe. In 1976, he was
invited by Herbert von Karajan to
appear at the Summer and Winter Festivals of Salzburg. Carreras made
notable recordings under the baton of
Herbert von Karajan, including the
Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi. He made an
acclaimed recording of the
'West Side Story' with
Leonard Bernstein.
Jose Carreras' lyrical tenor had its finest quality during the 1970s
and early 1980s. He sung the lead tenor in 24 different operas by the
age of 28. He performed the total of over 60 roles during the years of
intense singing career from 1964-1987, making over a thousand
performances in various formats: operas, concerts, recordings and
festival recitals. In the 1980s, Carreras' voice started to show some
signs of strain, especially detectable when he pushed or forced his
voice to harmful open notes.
In 1987, at the peak of his career, Jose Carreras collapsed in Paris
while a recording performance opposite
Kiri Te Kanawa in Manon Lescaut by
Giacomo Puccini. He was diagnosed with
leukemia and was given low chance of survival. He underwent a year-long
treatment of radiation, chemotherapy and an autologus bone marrow
transplant in Seattle. In 1988, Carreras returned to singing and was
greeted by a crowd of 150,000 at an open air performance in Barcelona.
In 1990, he made the acclaimed Three Tenors performance at the opening
of the World Cup in Rome. It was originally planned as a fund-raiser
for the Jose Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation. A series of
"The Three Tenors" concerts during the 1990s followed by the
record-breaking sales of their recordings.
Jose Carreras made a remarkable comeback after his treatment and
recovery from leukemia. He maintains a busy concert schedule and his
performance calendar is booked through the year 2007.
