Jose carreras tenor biography of martin short

Carreras had already become a success on opera stages and in the world of classical-pop "crossover" music, when he endured a near-death experience in — a bout with an often fatal form of leukemia. He survived the disease and went on to new heights of fame as one of the Three Tenors, a trio of opera giants who have performed megaconcerts in performances for audiences around the world.

On the boat across the Atlantic, Carreras's performing abilities made an early appearance as he entertained passengers with impressions of Argentine tango performers.

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Although Carreras's parents had little interest in music, they knew something unusual was happening when their seven-year-old learned to sing all of the operatic arias heard in the film. Within three years Carreras was appearing at the same theater in a boy soprano role in Manuel de Falla 's opera El retablo de Maese Pedro — a role usually left to adult female singers because of its difficulty.

After his voice broke and his talents remained undiminished, he devoted himself more and more intensely to opera. On his twenty-first birthday, he resolved to make opera singing his career. Many of Carreras's vocal classes were with non-professional singers, and the International Dictionary of Opera described him as "largely self-taught. The following year he performed the same role at the New York City Opera, and a three-year contract resulted.

Carreras learned 11 new roles in 16 months, and scaled the twin pinnacles of the opera world with performances at New York 's Metropolitan Opera and Milan, Italy's La Scala in and , respectively. El Camino Dr. For the next decade, the pieces of a top-notch operatic career seemed to fall in place for Carreras. His singing seemed to combine power, interpretation, and charisma in equal measure.

He seemed equally at home on the operatic stage, in solo concert performances and, after the early s, in semi-popular crossover music. He recorded an album of romantic ballads, Love Is … for the Philips label in , and his starring role in the musical West Side Story , although criticized by some operatic purists, was a commercially strong outing.

In the mids some observers began to notice that Carreras was showing fatigue, both vocally and in his overall demeanor.