The youngest one of the world-reknowned Three Tenors, Jose Carreras is in Beijing for the fourth time, but for the first time in the National Theatre for the Performing Arts.  

He was impressed by the sublety and elegance of the venue, the muted colours of the seats; and with a clap of his hand on the stage, he demonstrated how he checked the sound rebounding back, he was also impressed with the quality of the sound......

When I interviewed Jose Carreras today and he says at one point he was on a egoist pursuit, he did not know it then, but he knows it now.

We talked about his career, I asked whether we could classify it into 3 stages, before fame, after fame and then after his miraculous recovery from leukemia.  Each stage, he sang for a different reason.  As a boy, for the love of singing.  He remembers vividly how he sang and sang, and sang some more, after watching a Caruso film at age 6, until his parents decided he had talent.  It led to a smooth ride to his attention-grabbing debuts in Barcelona, NY, the Met, le Scala, etc.  After fame, did he sing for glory? for the critics?  for approval and standing from the very tight and exclusive operatic circle?  The amazing offers came pouring forth and he could not help but accept, and live his dream.  He worked, he conquered.  The offers kept him working hard, and kept on coming.  Now he could see, it was an ego trip.  Maybe he worked too hard?  He was diagnosed with cancer one summer on his 40th year.  However again, he showed he could conquer.

But what of his singing after his miraculous recovery?  He intiated fund raising galas that led to Three Tenors, he made popular records against the traditional grain.  He began to sing for people outside the circle? to spread hope in singing?  to sing what he was meant to sing for, sharing emotions from the heart? 

What he says now, is that there are things more important than his "vocation", such as friends and family.

He is a man of eloquence and controlled silence.  A man who listens.  A man who believes his mission is to sing.   Yet at the same time, a man who is humble and simple.  He says he is, off the stage, an ordinary citizen.  

He is a man who has captured the hearts of the world for fourty years.