Spanish tenor Jose Carreras, who with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo formed the "Three Tenors", the most famous trio in opera history, said in an interview in London on Friday he was retiring from opera, AFP reported.
The 62-year-old leukaemia survivor told The Times newspaper that he can no longer meet the gruelling demands of the roles.
"If I can do concert recitals, adapting the repertoire to my needs, then no problem, that?s good enough," he said.
"But with operas, unless the right circumstances come up, my career is done."
His retirement leaves 71-year-old Domingo as the only member of the trio to remain on the opera scene, after the death of Pavarotti of pancreatic cancer in September 2007.
"We were, without being presumptuous, the most popular tenors of the day," Carreras recalled.