José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa, together in London against Leukaemia

The 8th of December, José Carreras presented a show in the Royal Albert Hall in London to benefit the leukaemia foundation that took his name. In addition, the concert raised funds for Asthma UK, which is a British non-profit organization.

José Carreras, together with the renowned New Zealander soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, interpreted the melodies of the operas, Manon and El Cid, among others. The British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro David Giménez, also participated in the concert.

Kiri Te Kanawa

During the benefit evening the British chamber opera group, Diva Opera, also performed their interpretation of The party scene from the opera Die Fledermaus. Die Fledermaus (The bat) is a comic operetta with music by Johann Strauss (junior) and portrays Viennese society during the mid-nineteenth century. It was first performed on the 5th of april 1874 in the Teater an der Wien de Viena, Austria. The work was interpreted by the aforementioned company and will include performances by students of the Accademia Solti Te Kanawa, the violinist Ikuko Kawai, and the Catalan tenor Sergi Gimenez, among others.

Scene from Die Fledermaus

Thanks to recitals such as this, the José Carreras Foundation can continue to carry out its tasks: to encourage scientific research, to find donors of bone marrow and umbilical cord blood for patients who do not have a compatible family member, to support the infrastructures of hospital centres and to provide social services to families who do not have many financial resources. This work is carried out with one goal in mind: that one day, leukaemia will be a completely curable disease in all cases