Announced as a major coup for music lovers, Queenslanders will have the rare opportunity to hear what critics around the globe have hailed as 'the voice of the century' - Jose Carreras in Concert with The Queensland Orchestra for one night only, Friday, February 6, 2009.
This astonishing orchestral pairing was announced today at the launch of The Queensland Orchestra Season 2009 by The Hon. Rod Welford MP, Minister for Education & Training and Minister for the Arts. Managing Director, Michael P. Smith said the names of Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were forever etched in the global vernacular since the famous Three Tenors concert opened the curtains on the 1990 World Cup Finals on a summer evening in Rome.
'Together, these three extraordinary performers popularised the operatic voice overnight and what an honour it will be to welcome Jose Carreras to Queensland in February,' Mr Smith said.
'Jose Carreras is one of the elite tenors of the last hundred years. To see him perform with The Queensland Orchestra will be akin to sharing in a piece of music history,' he said.
Born in December 1946, in Barcelona, Spain, Jose Carreras was always destined to sing. Passengers aboard boats travelling from Spain to Argentina and the customers of his mother's hair salon would listen to him and legend has it he would lock the bathroom door so he could sing uninterrupted.
At age eight he first performed on radio. At 11, he starred in his first role with the Barcelona Opera. It was the beginning of a spectacular career and at 18, the soprano voice of the young Carreras changed into the tenor voice that has made him 'the voice of the century'.
Particularly eminent in the operas of Verdi and Puccini, his career has encompassed over 60 roles on stage and in the recording studio.
His showcase albums include Andrea Chenier, La boheme, Tosca, Werther, Don Carlo, Carmen, La forza del destino, I pagliacci, L'elisir d'amore and Un ballo in maschera.
He gained fame with a wider audience as one of The Three Tenors with a concert program which began in 1990 and continued until 2003.
Carreras is also known for his humanitarian work as the president of the Jose Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation (La Fundacio Internacional Josep Carreras per a la Lluita contra la Leucemia), which he established following his own recovery from the disease in 1988.
The Queensland Orchestra is focused on attaining new heights in 2009, following a momentous year in 2008. The upcoming season is one of celebrations, milestones and new experiences for all lovers of music, no matter what age or music tastes.
Seventy concerts, international guest artists and everything from great composer anniversaries - Handel (250 death), Haydn (200 death) and Mendelssohn (200 birth) - to cabaret and proms make up the 2009 repertoire. -- www.thequeenslandorchestra.com.au
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