José Carreras

Josep Maria Carreras l is a premier tenor vocalist better known as José Carreras. Born in Barcelona, he made his debut in 1958 at the age of 11, in Manuel de Falla's opera El Retablo de Maese Pedro. Throughout the 1970s, Carreras established a name for himself as a an international talent, making his Italian debut in La Bohème and his American debut with the New York City Opera in Madama Butterfly. While filming La Bohème in Paris, he was diagnosed with leukemia that doctors perceived to be fatal. Despite a one in ten chance of survival, Cerreras recovered after undergoing severe and invasive treatment. He took to the stage almost immediately after he recovered and embarked on a series of comeback tours throughout the end of the 1980s. Although he is best known for his roles in Giuseppe Verdi and Giacoma Puccini operas, Cerreras is also a member of Three Tenors, a vocal group completed by Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavorotti. The trio made its debut in 1990 with a concert in Rome that was originally assembled to raise money for Cerreras's leukemia foundation. The original recording from the concert sold over 13 million copies by 1999, and Three Tenors continued to perform throughout the 2000s.