Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé, born María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch on 12 April 1933 in Barcelona, and who died on 6 October 2018, was a Spanish (Catalan) soprano. Over a career spanning roughly sixty years, she earned a reputation as one of the finest sopranos of the 1900s and collected several musical honors, among them three Grammy Awards.

Early life

Her family faced financial hardship after the Spanish Civil War. She trained at the Liceu Conservatory, studying with Napoleone Annovazzi, Eugenia Kemény, and Conchita Badía, and graduated with a gold medal in 1954. Moving to Basel, Switzerland, she made her professional debut in 1956 as a last-minute replacement, singing Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème. From 1957 to 1959 she was part of the Basel Opera company, performing Mozart’s Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Strauss’s Salome—both in German, an unusual skill for a Spanish singer that served her well at the Bremen Opera from 1959 to 1962.

In 1961 she sang the title role in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in Lisbon. Returning to Barcelona in 1962, she debuted at the Liceu as Arabella in Strauss’s opera. That fall and into 1963 she toured Mexico, singing Massenet’s Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, followed by more Liceu performances.

International success

Caballé’s international breakthrough came in 1965 when she substituted for a pregnant Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall. She had less than a month to learn the bel canto role, but the performance earned a 25-minute standing ovation and made her famous worldwide. Later that year she debuted at Glyndebourne as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. During one Rosenkavalier performance, she surprised the tenor Ryland Davies by asking him for a cognac onstage.

He exited, got one from a stage assistant, returned, and handed it to her. She whispered thanks, turned her back to the audience, drank it, and resumed her role. In December 1965 she returned to Carnegie Hall for Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, singing Queen Elizabeth I, and on 22 December made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust.

In 1966 she sang with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier and made her Italian debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as Leonora in Il trovatore. The following year she performed Bellini’s Il pirata and returned to Philadelphia for the title roles in Tosca and Madama Butterfly, and to the Met for three Verdi heroines: Leonora in Il trovatore, Desdemona in Otello, and Violetta in La traviata. In 1968 she sang the title role in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Met, and in 1969 she performed Liù in Turandot with Birgit Nilsson.

That year she also appeared at the Arena di Verona as Elisabetta in Don Carlo alongside Plácido Domingo and Piero Cappuccilli. In 1970 she made her official La Scala debut in the title role of Lucrezia Borgia, and returned to the Met as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera. Her first appearances at Covent Garden and the Lyric Opera of Chicago came in 1972, both as Violetta.

That year she also sang Elisabetta in Don Carlo at the Met and the title role of Bellini’s Norma in Philadelphia. In 1973 she performed the title role of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in Chicago but left mid-contract due to phlebitis, marking her final Chicago appearance. That same year she sang Norma at the Met.

Caballé was best known for her work in Verdi and the bel canto repertoire—Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti—though she performed a wide range of roles. Her voice was described as pure yet powerful, with exceptional control of shading and a remarkable pianissimo. She is also remembered for her 1987 duet with Freddie Mercury, “Barcelona,” later used for the 1992 Olympic Games. The two admired each other and became close friends.