José Carreras

Born in Barcelona in 1946, he walked onto an operatic stage at 11 to sing in a Manuel de Falla piece. The debut opened a path through more than 60 roles in the standard repertoire — Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini — performed in leading houses and captured on recordings. In 1988 he was diagnosed with leukemia; he recovered, and the experience led him to establish an international leukemia foundation that he still leads. Two years later came the first Three Tenors concert with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, a format they repeated through 2003, bringing his voice to audiences who'd never bough…