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Montserrat Caballé (born 12 April 1933) is a Spanish Catalan operatic soprano. One of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century, she possessed a voice of remarkable beauty and of great range and flexibility, renowned for her flawless bel canto technique and unfailling musicianship. She was particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.
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Early life and career
Caballé was born in Barcelona and studied music at the Liceu Conservatory and singing technique under Eugenia Kemeny and Conchita Badía. She graduated with the gold medal in 1954. She made her professional debut at the Basel Opera in 1956, as Mimì in La bohème. She was then engaged by the Bremen Opera for the 1961-62 season, where she developed the foundations of her wide repertoire. In 1962, Caballé returned to Barcelona and made her debut at the Liceu, singing the title-role in Richard Strauss' Arabella.
Success and fame
Caballé's international breakthrough came in 1965 when she substituted for an indisposed Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall. While she had to learn the role in less than one month, and considering this was her first engagement in a bel canto score, her performance created a sensation and made her famous throughout the opera world. Later that year, Caballé made her debut at Glyndebourne singing her first Rosenkavalier and at the Metropolitan Opera as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. In December 1965 she also returned to Carnegie Hall for her second bel canto opera, singing the tremendous part of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's recently rediscovered Roberto Devereux.
In 1966 she made her debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Trovatore (and Pirata in 1967). In 1969 she produced an astonishing performance as Elisabetta of Valois in an all-star cast (including Domingo and Cappuccilli) of Don Carlo at the Arena di Verona in a famous Jean Vilar production. Her high B (Si) on the final "ciel" at the very end of the opera has become famous, lasting for more than 20 bars up to the final accord from the orchestra (a duration of approximately 14 seconds), driving mad an audience of more than 20,000. In these performances she had to act on crutches because an accident occurred earlier that year in New York City. In the same period she also appeared in one of the most remarkable recitals of her career at the Teatro Corallo, also in Verona.
In 1970, she made her "official" debut at La Scala in Milan as Lucrezia Borgia and in 1972 her Covent Garden debut as Violetta in La traviata.
1974 was probably the year when Caballé reached her peak, with a number of astonishing performances: Aida at Liceu in January, Vespri at the Met in March, Parisina d'Este at Carnegie Hall in March, 3 Normas in one week at the Bolshoi in Moscow, with Adriana Lecouvreur at La Scala in April, Norma in Orange in July (her top single performance, filmed in video by Pierre Jourdain), the recording of Aida under Muti in July, and the Duets recording with Giuseppe di Stefano in August.
In September she underwent major surgery to remove a huge but benign tumoral mass from her abdomen. She recovered quite well and was again on stage in early 1975.
Having lost some of her earlier brilliance and purity of voice, Caballé made up for it finding a more dramatic utterance and expressive singing in roles that demanded it. Thus, in 1978, another great year in her career, she sang a magnificent Tosca in San Francisco, with Pavarotti, and in Madrid a sublime Norma. A video exists of this performance, for some even better than her legendary one in Orange.
Achievements
Although best known for her bel canto roles, Caballé eventually sang over eighty operatic roles, from baroque opera to Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini, including the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and the title role in Salome.
Caballé is also a noted recitalist, particularly of songs of her native Spain.
Her voice is noted for its purity, precise control, and power. She is admired less for her dramatic instincts and acting skills than for her superb technique, vocal shadings, and exquisite pianissimos, which were inspired by Miguel Fleta. Her voice was also quite agile, although she possessed an unreliable trill.
The later years
Uniquely, Caballé recorded both the title role in Bellini's opera Norma (for RCA in 1972, opposite Plácido Domingo as Pollione) and later the role of Adalgisa (to Joan Sutherland's Norma) in the 1984 Decca recording conducted by Richard Bonynge. Although the role of Adalgisa was originally conceived by Bellini for a soprano, it is usually now sung by a mezzo-soprano. Caballé is the only soprano to have recorded the role, making her one of the most youthful-sounding Adalgisas on disc, despite the fact that she was over 50 at the time.
One of her rare excursions into the world of pop music, Caballé's duet with rock singer Freddie Mercury of Queen, "Barcelona", became a hit single in 1988, accompanied by an album of the same name. The title track later became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics which was hosted by Caballé's native city, and appeared again in the pop music charts throughout Europe. Caballé also performed the song live, accompanied by a recording of the by then deceased Mercury, before the 1999 UEFA Champions League football final in Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.
Caballé has dedicated herself to various charities. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and has established a foundation for needy children in Barcelona.
In 2003 she starred in her own 98-minute documentary film "Caballé Beyond Music" for theatrical, DVD & TV release worldwide, which featured Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Renee Fleming, Freddie Mercury, Maria Callas, Samuel Ramey, Marilyn Horne, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Giuseppe di Stefano, Maya Plisetskaya, Yelena Obraztsova, Cheryl Studer, Montserrat Martí, Joan Sutherland, Claudio Abbado, Federico Mayor Zaragoza (UNESCO), Luc Montagnier (discoverer of the HIV virus - Pasteur Institute), Eve Queler, Terenci Moix, etc. Shot in 23 cities for 3 years: Barcelona, New York, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Rome, Nice, Milan, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Cologne, Basel, Seville, Cordoba, Madrid, Peralada, Ostia Anticha, Andorra, Ripoll and the Abbey of Montserrat. It was presented at 14 international film festivals.
Caballé does not appear to have altogether retired from the stage. She continues to assume new roles: in 2002, Catherine of Aragon in Saint-Saëns's Henri VIII; in 2004, the title role in Massenet's Cléopâtre, both at the Liceu. At the age of 74 (2007), she still maintains a busy schedule of recitals and concerts, mainly in Germany. She has appeared as The Duchess of Crakentorp in La fille du régiment at the Vienna State Opera in April 2007.
Caballé married the tenor Bernabé Martí in 1964. Her daughter, Montserrat Martí (Montsita), is also a soprano. The two occasionally perform together.