Customer Reviews

Jose Carreras - A Life Story [VHS]

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I have been an admirer of Jose Carreras for many years and this is a wonderful portrait of the master's life and art. It covers the early triumphs at Covent Garden and the New York City Opera to his struggle with Leukemia and to the courageous comeback concerts in Barcelona and Saltzburg. I recommend this video to any aspiring singer, music lover and admirer of Mr Carreras.

This movie tells the story of a humble, honest and unassuming man with tremendous success around the world. It is actually an interview with Carreras where we are shown clips from his adventurous life; clips from opera performances as well as concerts and recitals, all the way from the very start and up till the point where this video was made - around 1992.

There are also some members of his family, friends and colleagues as well as his first singing teacher telling small anecdotes and commenting on this mans' extraordinary musicianship. His first singing teacher revealed that he was a very naughty boy when he was little; he and her son were always throwing pegs out the window onto the occasional person passing by....And Montserrat Caballé tells among other things (and we are also shown a clip) about a performance where she wore long earrings and while Carreras and she embraced, her earring fell off and ended up down her cleavage. You can see them both laughing as they are still singing, when Carreras reaches down her cleavage and gently taking the earring and giving it back to her. I don't think she was too happy about it at first, but she easily forgave him (having a very soft spot for him, I guess). And we'll hear a short comment from Carreras saying that he thinks she is more imaginative in these cases than him.....

Carreras himself also tells us about one time when he was on stage singing Alfredo in La Traviata and suddenly sees the director of the opera house coming onto the stage. His first thought was "My goodness, I'm not singing that bad, am I"? But that was absolutely not the case; the reason being there was a bomb scare.........

All the people interviewed are telling about a remarkable human being as well as an outstanding singer. Of course, it is impossible making a video about the life of Carreras without also telling about his fight against leukaemia. And we are shown clips from some very moving moments, like the one when he is welcomed back on stage in the theatre Liceu after more than a year of absence. The singer himself is not dwelling with the fact that he must have suffered immensely going through this horrible time in his life. He is more interested in telling us that even from the worst experiences in life we can draw positive conclusions.

Through this film Carreras comes across as a person who's very down to earth; he does not have an inflated opinion of himself whatsoever and he's also a person with a warm sense of humour. All in all he's a person in possession of both a wonderful voice and an equally wonderful personality.

I have just recently bought this video. I was actually waiting and hoping for it to be available on dvd, but in case that never happens and the video goes out of print I decided to jump at it right away. And I'm sure glad I did. This is a video well worth having in any collection. Essential for all Carreras fans.