José Carreras

Carreras was a Liceu tenor before he was an international one: the lyric and lirico-spinto roles of Verdi, Puccini and the verismo composers — Rodolfo, Alfredo, Nemorino, Don José, Cavaradossi — carried him from Barcelona to La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan within a decade of his first leading parts. He was born in Barcelona in 1946 and was singing principal roles by his mid-twenties. The Three Tenors concerts with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti began in Rome in 1990. In 1988 he established the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation, which has since funded research and built a bone-marrow donor registry in Spain, with the registry established in 1991. His farewell concerts included London in 2016, and a Bogotá farewell appearance was announced for 13 May 2026. Nabucco and Lucrezia Borgia at the Liceu in 1970 were the appearances that opened the international career, and Andrea Chénier, Werther and Don Carlo came into the repertoire later. He worked extensively with Herbert von Karajan and recorded complete operas and sacred works as well as recital programmes.