Interview - José Carreras: "Pavarotti prepared me a sandwich, I didn't know it was a farewell"

On today's edition, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published an interesting interview to Josep Carreras, which was probably released on occasion of the launch of DoppiaA F/W Collection  2018/19 in Milan this summer. It is mainly about his friends and colleagues, Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, about some historical concerts of the past, from the comeback recital in Barcelona, 1988, to The Three Tenors in Caracalla, 1990, and even the Misa Criolla concerts on the top of the Duomo in Milan, 2010.

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www.corriere.it/

As the title reveals, the first big topic relates to his relationship with Luciano Pavarotti, in particular to their last time together in Modena. Carreras tells that he went to see Pavarotti to his house in Modena, a few weeks before his death. As usual he was welcomed with open arms "How are you doing, Ciccio?", and he replied "Hola, Chato" as he was used to, with a proper match in Spanish. They talked about so many things, and right before he left, Pavarotti went to his kitchen and prepared a sandwich for his journey back to Barcelona. Most probably, none of them could imagine that that was a farewell.

The article reports the fact that Carreras talked about his friend with deep emotion, and that he had nice words for Domingo as well, the Cristiano Ronaldo of Opera according to him. In fatcs, he says that they meet quite often, that they have big affection and respect to each other, and that he is very happy for his success. As a football lover and FC Barcelona supporter, he states that the Leo Messi of Opera still has to be born instead.

With similar emotion he talks about Milan and his son Albert, lawyer and co-founder of DoppiaA with fashion
designer Alain Fracassi. Lately they have launched the Fall/Winter 2018/19 Collection of their men's fashion brand whose showroom in Milan is in Via della Spiga, really close to the Teatro alla Scala.

Alain Fracassi, Josep Carreras and his son Albert Carreras.

Among his several memorable performances in Milan, Carreras is asked about the three concerts he offered on the top of the Duomo in July 2010, in support of the renovation of the major pinnacle of the Cathedral. He defines one of the best experience of his career, so mystical even though he was surrounded by mosquitos (he laughs). 

Aged 71, he has plans for a tour starting in February 2019. One of his biggest wish is to sing once again in all the places he has performed, included Italy and, of course, Milan, which is a sort of La Mecca to him.

However, as the journalist guessed, his life concert was his comeback recital in Barcelona, one year after being diagnosed with leukaemia in Paris, when he sang Grieg's T'estimo (Ti amo) to all the people who had showed him support and affection. He says he has always felt affection and respect of the people in the hardest moments of his life, and that during his treatment he could draw some comfort from listening to Rachmaninov's Piano Concert no. 2. He still tries to listen to it everyday, like he does with Giuseppe Di Stefano; he tells that he actually has a stereo in his bathroom and that he listen to him everyday when he shaves. About his idol he says, that he was the best ever, not really tenor-looking. According to him, Di Stefano changed the opera world, he played it down in some way, and he was able to criticize himself, which was quite unusual in that world at that time (50's and 60's).

Talking about leukaemia, he regards it as a break in his life, which marked a "before" and an "after". It changed his priorities. Before he was exclusively focused on his career and on success. Now he dedicates plenty of time to his Foundation, which has branches in Germany, Switzerland and United States. The first concert of the Three Tenors supported the Foundation, which was established in order to cure blood diseases and improve life quality of patients. They have created a bone marrow donor register in Spain, which is connected to other registers in the world. It is so important, as it offers a life-saving opportunity to 75% of patients with no match in their family. Now the Foundation and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government) has opened the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, the only center in Europe exclusively focused on the treatment of leukaemia and other blood diseases.

As regards his life, Josep Carreras says he has a few regrets like everybody has. He made mistakes, but have always tried not to hurt anyone and to keep good relationships, affectionate and respectful. In some cases, he has surely thought that 'If only...', but that's hypothetical more than a regret. Some other are more nostalgia that regrets: he wishes he could still sing Andrea Chénier at La Scala like he did when he was 35, but that's not only a matter of voice, your body changes with age too, and so your repertoire. He says he can't even sing Bohème, Carmen or Un Ballo in Maschera anymore... but, as he clearly points out, it is about nostalgia, not regret. He still tries to thrill the audience as before. 

Finally, he wishes that his grand-children could be free. His generation is the luckiest as it didn't have to experience war. Still they lived a dictatorship, and Europe could be still exposed to a similar risk.