José Carreras at the Arena

The great Spanish tenor, José Carreras, will play the Zagreb Arena on the 19th of December, exactly a year after his last humanitarian concert at Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall, which was organized for the ailing Croatian maestro Vjekoslav Šutej and the Ana Rukavina Foundation. That concert was initiated by José Carreras himself in order to help the internationally renowned maestro and head-conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic, Vjekoslav Šutej. The great tenor was often conducted by Šutej on stages across the globe, before the maestro fell ill with acute leukemia that required expensive treatment in Seattle. The Spanish tenor, the darling of Zagreb’s audience, appeared together with an impressive lineup of a dozen other, globally renowned opera singers.

José Carreras holds a special place in the contemporary world of music. He started building his career as a globally renowned artist from an early age, by performing on some of the most prestigious world stages, and collaborating with the greatest conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. His performances with two other, great tenors, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, oftentimes organized in large football stadiums across the globe, have seduced the hearts of the widest possible opera audience. Throughout his career he has released more than 150 albums and, since 1988, he has headed the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation which has gathered top class scientists and leading entrepreneurs in the battle against leukemia - one of the tenor’s most important goals in life ever since he was cured from the disease himself.

José Carreras’ last concert in Croatia was held this July in Zadar, where a real musical spectacle was organized at the old city center in front of St. Mary’s Church.