José Carreras Collection

Just one year after his successful and highly acclaimed comeback at the Vienna State Opera he returned to the same opera stage where he made his brilliant debut in 197, as a thirty-year-old: the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg. This recital was staged a second time and was also relayed live to a giant screen at the city's Domplatz - a clear indication of the enormous affection with which he was received by the Salzburg public. The Spanish tenor repays such lively interest with an exclusive programme that includes no less than 23 songs and five encores. Whereas the first half of the evening was divided into three parts - works from the Italian baroque, French mélodies by Jules Massenet and canzoni by Francesco Paolo Tosti, the second half consisted entirely of Spanish works and focused principally on the songs of Manuel de Falla. And if not the final encore of the evening, certainly its crowning moment is the song we have come to associate with José Carreras as his vocal trademark - Granada by Agustìn Lara.