Plácido Domingo ja José Carreras

Two of the most celebrated names in the history of opera will share a stage in Tallinn next spring. José Carreras and Plácido Domingo, whose performances together with Luciano Pavarotti as the legendary Three Tenors brought opera to an unprecedented global audience, will perform at Unibet Arena on Friday, 12 March 2027. They will be joined by acclaimed Spanish soprano Sabina Puértolas. The concert will be conducted by Barcelona-born David Giménez.

For more than half a century, Carreras and Domingo have been among the defining voices and personalities of international opera. Their individual careers have taken them to the world’s greatest opera houses, but their names became forever intertwined in 1990, when they joined Luciano Pavarotti for the first Three Tenors concert at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final. What was originally conceived as a one-off event became a cultural phenomenon, followed by further concerts around the world and introducing classical singing to an audience far beyond the traditional opera house.

José Carreras, born in Barcelona, showed an extraordinary musical talent from childhood and first appeared on the operatic stage at the age of 11. His international career took off in the early 1970s, and he went on to perform more than 60 roles, becoming especially renowned for the operas of Verdi, Puccini and Donizetti. He appeared at leading houses including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London and the Vienna State Opera, and worked with some of the most important conductors and singers of his era, among them Herbert von Karajan and Montserrat Caballé.

Carreras’ life and career took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1987. Following his recovery, he established the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation in 1988 and has since devoted much of his life outside music to supporting research and treatment of the disease.

Music, however, has remained inseparable from Carreras’ life. Speaking in 2025 about the vocation that has carried him through decades on stage, he said: “I cannot imagine life without music, and music-making is my vocation.” He has also described the bond between the Three Tenors in characteristically simple terms: “We were friends, and we really enjoyed ourselves whenever we performed together.”

Plácido Domingo & José Carreras sing "My Way" in Pavarotti 90 at Arena di Verona 2025

Plácido Domingo has built one of the broadest careers in modern opera as a singer, conductor and arts administrator. Originally celebrated as a lirico-spinto tenor, he became particularly renowned for roles including Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don José in Carmen, Canio in Pagliacci and, above all, Verdi’s Otello. Later in his career he moved into the baritone repertoire, adding roles including Simon Boccanegra, Giorgio Germont, Nabucco and Macbeth to an already exceptional body of work.

Across his career Domingo has performed more than 150 different roles and recorded more than 100 complete operas. His work has also extended far beyond the traditional repertoire: his 1981 duet “Perhaps Love” with John Denver became an international success and helped establish him as one of the classical world’s most recognisable crossover artists. He has received numerous Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards and appeared in opera films, major televised concerts and performances around the world.

Domingo has also played a significant role in shaping the next generation of classical singers. In 1993 he founded Operalia, the international singing competition that has helped launch the careers of numerous major opera stars, while his lifelong connection with zarzuela has made him one of the form’s most prominent international advocates.

Even after more than half a century on stage, Domingo continues to look forward rather than treat his career solely as history. Reflecting recently on his continued performances, he said: “I try to enjoy every moment fully, but always while dreaming of future projects. Dreams and enthusiasm are the fuel for the engine of my car.”

Carreras and Domingo’s shared history reaches far beyond the enormous success of the Three Tenors. Their first concert with Pavarotti in Rome was followed by appearances at some of the biggest sporting and cultural events in the world, helping transform perceptions of what an opera concert could be and how large its audience could become. The recording of that inaugural concert became the best-selling classical album of all time.

Joining Carreras and Domingo in Tallinn will be Spanish soprano Sabina Puértolas, one of the leading representatives of her generation in the Spanish lyric tradition. Puértolas made her Teatro alla Scala debut in 2001 as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera under Riccardo Muti and has since appeared at the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Theater an der Wien, Arena di Verona and opera houses across Europe, the Americas and Asia. Her repertoire ranges from bel canto and Verdi to Mozart, Puccini, Handel and zarzuela. In the 2024/25 season she was named Best Female Singer by Ópera XXI, following acclaimed performances including Anna Bolena and Violetta in La traviata. Puértolas has performed frequently with Carreras and more recently with Domingo, while her connection with the latter goes back to 2003, when she won the Zarzuela Prize at Domingo’s Operalia competition.

The Tallinn concert brings together artists whose careers span several generations of opera history: two performers whose partnership helped turn classical music into a global mass-audience event, and a soprano carrying the Spanish lyric tradition into the present day. Conductor David Giménez has led orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker and Orchestre de Paris, appearing at many of the world’s leading concert halls and opera houses.

José Carreras and Plácido Domingo, joined by Sabina Puértolas, will perform at Unibet Arena in Tallinn on Friday, 12 March 2027. Live Nation Estonia presale begins on Wednesday, 16 September at 10:00 local time. General ticket sales begin on Friday, 18 September at 10:00 local time.