Art & Creativity Quote by Jose Carreras

Jose Carreras’ line lands less like a theory and more like a musician’s quiet insistence on being taken seriously: “I’ve always said that music is like literature.” It’s a defense against the old hierarchy that treats opera as decorative sound and performers as mere vessels. By reaching for literature, Carreras borrows the cultural authority of the written word - narrative, character, interpretation, craft - and grafts it onto music, especially the voice, where meaning literally rides on breath.

The phrasing matters. “I’ve always said” signals a long-held conviction, a stance repeated in interviews and rehearsals, the kind of mantra artists use to keep their work anchored amid public spectacle. It also implies he’s had to argue this before: that audiences, critics, even institutions sometimes listen for technique and miss the text. For a tenor known for Verdi and Puccini, “like literature” is practically a job description. Opera is not just melody; it’s libretto, diction, and the emotional architecture of a story delivered in real time. You don’t just sing a high note; you “read” a character’s crisis.

There’s subtext, too, about access. Literature invites close reading; Carreras is asking for close listening, for audiences to treat a performance as interpretation rather than display. Coming from a star whose career also includes public activism and a highly visible battle with illness, the claim nudges music toward moral and human stakes: art that can be reread, re-lived, and argued over, not simply consumed and forgotten.