Montserrat Caballé (Catalan: [munsəˈrat kəβəˈʎe]; born 12 April 1933) is a Spanish operatic soprano. She has sung a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.[1] She came to the attention of a much wider audience in 1987 when she sang "Barcelona", a duet with the lead singer of the rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury, which was inspired by her home city and later used as a theme song for the 1992 Summer Olympics in that city.
María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch was born in Barcelona and studied music at the Liceu Conservatory, and singing technique with Napoleone Annovazzi, Eugenia Kemény and Conchita Badía. She graduated with a gold medal in 1954. She subsequently moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she made her professional debut in 1956 as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème. She became part of the Basel Opera company between 1957 and 1959, singing a repertoire that included Mozart (Erste Dame in The Magic Flute) and Richard Strauss (Salome) in German, unusual for Spanish singers, but which proved useful for her next engagement at the Bremen Opera (1959–1962).
In 1962, Caballé returned to Barcelona and debuted at the Liceu, singing the title role in Strauss's Arabella. From the fall of 1962 through the spring of 1963 she toured Mexico, at one point singing the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This was followed by several more successful appearances at the Liceu in 1963.
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, which earned her a 25-minute standing ovation. While this was her first engagement in a bel canto opera and she had to learn the role in less than one month, her performance made her famous throughout the opera world. Later that year, Caballé made her debut at Glyndebourne singing her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and portraying the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
In December 1965 she returned to Carnegie Hall for her second bel canto opera, singing the part of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's recently rediscovered Roberto Devereux. Caballé closed out the year with her Metropolitan Opera debut on 22 December 1965, portraying Marguerite in Gounod's Faust opposite John Alexander in the title role and Justino Díaz as Méphistophélès. That performance also marked Sherrill Milnes's debut at the Met in the role of Valentin.
In 1966, Caballé made her first appearance with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier and her Italian debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Verdi's Trovatore (and Bellini's Il pirata in 1967).
She returned to Philadelphia in 1967 to sing the title roles in Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly and to the Met to sing three Verdi heroines: Leonora in Il trovatore opposite Richard Tucker as Manrico, Desdemona in Otello opposite James McCracken in the title role, and Violetta in La traviata with Tucker and George Shirley alternating as Alfredo. The last role in particular garnered her further acclaim among American critics and audiences. She returned to the Met the following year to portray the title role in Verdi's Luisa Miller and in 1969 to sing the role of Liù in Puccini's Turandot with Birgit Nilsson in the title role and James King as Calàf. She also returned to Philadelphia to sing Imogene in Il pirata (1968) and Lucrezia Borgia (1969).
In 1969, Caballé sang Elisabetta of Valois in an all-star cast (including Plácido Domingo and Piero Cappuccilli) of Don Carlo at the Arena di Verona in a Jean Vilar production. Her high B on the final "ciel" at the end of the opera lasted more than 20 bars up to the final chord from the orchestra. In these performances she had to act on crutches because of an accident earlier that year in New York City. In the same period she also appeared in recital at the Teatro Corallo, also in Verona. In 1970, Caballé made her "official" debut at La Scala in the title role of Lucrezia Borgia, sang Leonora in Philadelphia, and returned to the Met as Amelia in a critically acclaimed production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Plácido Domingo as Riccardo, and Reri Grist as Oscar.
In 1972 she made her first appearances at Covent Garden and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, both in the role of Violetta. That same year she returned to the Met as Elizabeth of Valois in Verdi's Don Carlo with Franco Corelli in the title role and sang Norma in Philadelphia. In 1973 she returned to Chicago to perform the title role in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda opposite Viorica Cortez, sang Violetta in Philadelphia, and appeared at the Met as Bellini's Norma opposite Carlo Cossutta in his Met debut as Pollione and Fiorenza Cossotto as Adalgisa.
In 1974, Caballé sang in a number of performances: Aida at Liceu in January, I vespri siciliani at the Metropolitan Opera in March, Parisina d'Este at Carnegie Hall in March, three Normas in one week at the Bolshoi Theatre 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 Riccardo Muti in July, and the Duets recording with Giuseppe Di Stefano in August. In September 1974, she underwent major surgery to remove a large benign mass from her abdomen. She recovered and was performing again on stage by early 1975. In 1976 Caballé appeared at the Met once again as Norma, sang her first Aida in that house opposite Robert Nagy as Radamès and Marilyn Horne as Amneris, portrayed the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and sang Mimì in Puccini's La bohème opposite Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo.
In 1977 Caballé made her debut with the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Puccini's Turandot. She returned to that house ten more times over the next decade in such roles as Elvira in Verdi's Ernani and the title parts in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Rossini's Semiramide, and Puccini's Tosca among others.
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