“My life has been a happy one, full of moments of joy,” asserted the tenor Josep Carreras on Tuesday, brimming with energy and a humble, human voice. He was the main figure at the last Vanguardia Forums meeting of the year, held at the MGS auditorium, which turned into a retrospective of the artist's life. He is a symbol of the fight against leukemia after overcoming the tough test of the illness. An effort that he continues to uphold through the foundation that bears his name."
The tenor, who celebrated his 78th birthday last week, reviewed his career in front of 220 subscribers of La Vanguardia at an event where he was surrounded by his family and friends. On stage, he was accompanied by Ramon Rovira, General Director of the Godó Group, music journalist Maricel Chavarria, who moderated the event, and Màrius Carol, Editorial Advisor of the Godó Group and author of A viva voz, Josep Carreras' memoirs co-written with the journalist and former director of La Vanguardia.
From the pages of his memoirs emerged many of the questions asked to the musician last night, who is reluctant to retire from the stage. “In two years, I will turn 80 and I suppose I won't go beyond that,” he commented not without some reluctance, “but in the meantime, I may do 12 or 15 concerts each year, that fulfills me as a singer.” This is evidenced by his recent performances, such as last month's trip to Japan, a country he has been visiting every year since 1973, when he went to sing La Traviata. “It is the peak moment of the season, I love Japanese culture and society,” he stated; a tradition that he only broke due to illness.
Retirement: “In two years I will be 80 and I suppose I will not go beyond that”
Another recent trip took him to Germany, where he has been participating in a telethon marathon for the past 30 years to raise funds against leukemia, Carreras' great commitment since he suffered the disease in 1987, at a time when having it was almost a death sentence, as Ramon Rovira recalled.
“The progress that has been made in this field in recent years is extraordinary, especially in children,” acknowledged the tenor, who, based on his own experience, founded the Josep Carreras Foundation. “We aim to contribute our bit to the researchers who are fighting to find the right cure. We must be relentless in eradicating the disease.”
During his time in Seattle to receive treatment, he offered cherished memories, such as the arias he sang while undergoing radiotherapy. “I knew I had half an hour between each one, if I sang four opera arias the time would pass.” During those days music helped him, especially Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, “I listened to it every day, sometimes even twice,” as well as the supportive letters he received from around the world.
“I have never seen Plácido Domingo do anything that was not correct”
There were certainly moments of emotional weakness in the face of bleak healing expectations, “but I thought that if there was one chance in a million to cure myself, that was mine,” he said. It was a test of trust where his brothers played a fundamental role, as did the ability to put things into perspective. “I thought about my family and returning to my career, but also about the fact that at 40 I had lived a full life, I had done things that many people could not do.” Particularly moving was the presence in the auditorium of Ciril Rozman, son of the doctor who treated Carreras in Seattle, and for whom the tenor said he felt “devotion.”
Josep Carreras, at the MGS auditorium in Barcelona
It was during a performance of Fedora that Carreras, still in recovery, returned to his beloved Liceu in 1988 to receive 10 minutes of applause after being brought on stage by Plácido Domingo, his comrade in the Three Tenors, who has been accused of sexually harassing several women. “He has never been charged, tried, or convicted,” Carreras recalled. “What I can sincerely say is that I have never seen him do anything inappropriate. Whatever he may have done, I do not know, as I have never witnessed it.”
“If I have had any virtue, it is that I was born to sing, everyone sells the best they have,” the tenor always recognized humbly. Throughout his career, he worked with the best conductors, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, or Von Karajan, in addition to starring in such emotional moments as the closing ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics with the performance of Friends for Life, a song that was born after Carreras himself traveled to London to ask Andrew Lloyd Weber to compose it. “Two minutes later, he returned with a score,” he recalled. “And as soon as we heard it, we realized it would work.”
“The voice of Caballé was not possessed by Callas, nobody had ever heard a woman like her”
But if there is someone Carreras remembers in the opera world, it is Montserrat Caballé, his mentor in the early years with whom he had an “almost family-like relationship, she lent a hand when needed.” Furthermore, he didn't hesitate to assert that “Caballé's voice was not like Callas'. I remember performances like Maria Stuarda or Lucrezia Borgia at the Liceu where she was exceptional, no one had heard a woman sing like her.” The same could be said of yesterday's protagonist, but his character makes him immune to compliments, “one must be true to their identity as a person and preserve it,” he stated. Perhaps because he still remembers the boy who sang in his mother's hairdresser so that Mrs. Cortés would give him a coin, “she was the most generous.”