Even those people who have nothing to do with opera have heard the name Montserrat Caballe. This greatest woman captivated an audience of millions with her lyric-coloratura soprano and excellent command of the bel canto technique.
It is unlikely that any of the new prima donnas can compete with Montserrat with the vastness of the repertoire and the number of concerts. The combination of lightness, smiling, femininity, kindness, confidence and calm allows us to call Caballe the ideal woman..
Opera diva Montserrat Caballe
Biography
The biography of Montserrat Caballe dates back to 1933. The opera diva's date of birth is April 12.
Childhood, youth
A girl was born in poverty. The Montserrat Caballe family barely made ends meet. My father was engaged in the production of chemical fertilizers, and my mother worked as a housekeeper. At school the girl was not liked for her aloofness and silence. In addition, due to poverty, Montserrat always came to class in the same dress. The children laughed at her. This offended Caballe very much. On top of that, after the birth of his brother, Monserrat's father became very ill.
The beginning of the path to Montserrat Caballe
The girl first heard opera at the age of seven. She remembered this experience for the rest of her life. Montserrat was so shocked by the death of Madame Butterfly that she cried all the way from home.
The girl decided to learn the aria by heart and did so. And in 1940, for Christmas, she performed it in front of the whole family.
Legendary Opera singer
Panic shortage of money forced Montserrat to at a young age work in a handkerchief factory. Probably, Caballe would have continued to work in this field, but then the Bertrand family came to their city, which was looking for young talents. After listening, no one had any doubt that Montserrat was a real opera star.
Studies
The Bertrand couple helped the girl enter the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona. The future diva was supervised by Eugenia Kemmeni. It was she who managed to give the voice to the aspiring performer. Thanks to Eugenia, Montserrat maintained the strength and purity of her voice for 40 years. In addition, Kemenni revealed to Caballe all the secrets of vocal mastery. She taught her a special breathing technique, which the singer always used at her concerts.
Montserrat in his youth
All expenses and financial worries were taken care of by the Bertrand spouses. In addition, they took care of the education of Montserrat’s younger brother Carlos, found Good work to her father. All this, in their opinion, was supposed to pay off when Caballe achieved fame and performed at concerts in the Gren Teatro del Liceo theater that they owned.
Career
In 1965, the biography of Montserrat Caballe was supplemented with one more highlight. On November 17, she performed Mimi in the opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini. The action took place on the stage of the Basel Theater. This performance became fateful for the aspiring singer and opened the way for her to the world stage.
In 1965, the singer was already known outside her homeland, in particular in Vienna, Milan, and Lisbon.
However, world success came to the singer only in 1966. Montserrat was then offered to replace the famous Marilyn Horne in the Carnegie Hall Opera.
Montserrat Caballe
After the performance, the audience gave Caballe a standing ovation. After the performance, the audience did not let the singer leave the hall for about half an hour.
The next fateful performance was participation in the opera “Norma” by Bellini. 4 years after the premiere of the play, the team led by Moserrat Caballe came on tour to Moscow.
The singer performed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in arias:
- "Othello";
- "Aida";
- "Troubadour";
- "Triviata";
- "Louise Miller."
Montserrat collaborated with star orchestras, led by:
- James Livian;
- Herbert von Karajan;
- Georg Solti;
- Leonard Bernstein;
- Zubin Mehta.
In the duet, Caballe performed with Freddie Mercury, Placido Domingo, Luciano Povorotti, Marilyn Horne and Elena Obraztsova.
The singer's repertoire includes 130 opera performances. For the whole creative career she released more than a hundred records and was awarded a Grammy Award for best performance vocal classical solo.
The opera diva also performed in a duet with Freddie Mercury. With the lead singer of the group “Queen” she recorded 2 songs for his album “Barcelona”.
Caballe and Freddie Mercury
In addition, Montserrat taught vocals and sang together with Nikolai Baskov. They performed a composition taken from “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Ave Maria.”
Opera diva with Nikolai Baskov
Personal life
The singer’s personal life is not as bright as her performances. Gave all my love to one to the only person and gave birth to two wonderful ones.
Wedding Montserrat Caballe
Family
Montserrat met her future husband at the play “Madama Butterfly”. As it turned out, this performance became twice fateful for the opera diva. At the performance, the man pressed his lips to hers so passionately that he could not tear himself away. The kiss lasted a very long time. Caballe immediately fell in love with the young man.
Montserrat Caballe with her husband
Barnabe later proposed to her. After a few years, Marty gave up his career. The man chose his family over the stage. For about 50 years the couple lived in perfect harmony.
Husband
The husband of the singer Marty Barnabe is a large and significant chapter in the biography of Montserrat Caballe. The singer became known to the general public in the mid-20th century. Marty is 5 years older than Caballe. The wedding took place on Mount Montserrat.
Singer's husband Marty Barnabe
The love and happiness of the couple was not hindered by either Caballe’s fame or her rapidly growing fortune, which was caused by the accident. After this, the receptors responsible for lipid metabolism turned off in the singer’s brain. With a height of 161 cm, Caballe weighed 100 kg.
Children
In their marriage, the couple had a daughter, Montserrat (in the photo she looks very much like her mother). Bernabe became the second child in the family. The biography of Montserrat Caballe and her daughter are somewhat similar, because the girl followed in the footsteps of her star mother and is already one of the best Spanish performers.
Montserrat Caballe with her son and husband
News 2019
Unfortunately, Montserrat Caballe is no longer with us. She died on the morning of October 6. The cause of death is still unknown. However, journalists managed to find out that at the end of September the singer was hospitalized due to bladder problems.
The opera diva's funeral is planned for Monday.
It is noteworthy that the singer several years ago underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on the brain. The intervention was successful. However, the singer had to relearn how to walk, talk and sing.
SENORA SOPRANO MONTSERRAT CABALLE
Destined to be the last of the great caste opera divas XX century. At one time they assigned the epithet “Divine”, and Renata Tebaldi was called “Amazing”.
The opera first shocked Montserrat at the age of seven, when she cried all the way back from the theater, upset by the death of Madame Butterfly. The girl learned the heroine's aria while listening to an old record, and vowed that she would become a famous and rich opera singer.
Talented ugly Montserrat Caballe
Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Folk was born in a very poor family 1933. Dad was a worker at a chemical fertilizer plant, and mom worked part-time where she could. The family barely made ends meet. Montserrat was also not doing well at school. The children didn't like her because she was a silent savage and 
came to class in the same dress. Her classmates never missed an opportunity to laugh at her. To top all the troubles, my father fell seriously ill and left his job. But everyday difficulties only strengthened the girl’s character.
She got a job at a factory where handkerchiefs were embroidered. And soon fate smiled at her, bringing the Beltran Mata couple into the life. They were philanthropists who helped young talents. Thanks to their support, Caballe ended up at the famous Barcelona conservatory Liceo with the Hungarian teacher Eugenia Kemmeni. In four years, she cut the nugget, turning it into a real diamond. Long years every day of the great singer began with breathing exercises according to the Kemmeni system.
To Italy!
She studied at the Lyceum of Barcelona for twelve years. Having finished it with a “gold” medal, the future singer went to storm the bastions of the opera Mecca - the theaters of Italy. However, the 24-year-old “imposter” in her homeland and Puccini were in for severe disappointment: some petty impresario categorically told Montserrat that a stage career was out of the question for her - with such a figure, she should find herself a husband and raise children. All in tears, Caballe rushed home, where the furious Catalan, her brother Carlos, stood up to defend the family property. He personally volunteered to take the place of impresario of Montserrat so that in the future no one could interfere with his sister’s takeoff.
Caballe's professional debut took place in 1956 - she sang Mimi in La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini 
on the stage of the Basel Theater, small but famous.
Soon Montserrat married the then famous tenor Bernabe Marty. The young people met at the same iconic Madama Butterfly for Montserrat. During a love duet, he attracted Caballe to him and pressed his lips to hers. The passionate kiss lasted so long that the orchestra fell silent. Both the audience and the artists waited in bewilderment for the hero to break away from the young singer. Caballe appreciated Marty's resourcefulness and immediately fell in love with him. And the next day Bernabe proposed marriage to Montserrat.
Bernabe's career gradually faded away. But he was not jealous of his wife’s fame: he understood how countless men around the world were jealous of the only owner of the heart of Senora Soprano, as Caballe is called in her homeland. And she reciprocated, giving her husband a son and daughter - Bernabe Jr. and Monsit.
Montserrat Caballe Wedding Adventure
As collected and purposeful as the singer is on stage, she is so disorganized in life. She was late for her own wedding!
This was in 1964. The wedding was to take place in a church at a monastery nearby 
from Barcelona. The bride's mother, the strict Donna Anna, thought it would be very romantic: a ceremony overshadowed by the patronage of the Reverend Montserrat herself. And so on the wedding day, Caballe leaves with his mother in an old Volkswagen. And this has to happen for it to rain in Barcelona in August. By the time we got to the mountain, the road was bad. The car is stuck. Neither here nor there. The engine stalled. They had 12 kilometers left. All the guests are already upstairs, and mother and the bride are floundering below, and there is no chance of climbing up. And then Montserrat, in a wedding dress and veil, wet, stands on the road and begins to vote. Any paparazzi would give half his life for such a shot now. But then no one knew her. Cars we indifferently drove past a large dark-haired girl in a ridiculous white dress, desperately gesticulating on the roadway. Fortunately, a shabby truck pulled up. Montserrat and Anna climbed onto it and rushed to the church, where the poor groom and his guests no longer knew what to think.
Safe haven of Montserrat
with her husband Bernabe Marti
As a true Catholic, the singer valued her family most of all, whose members wake up in different time, but they still all have breakfast together. Then everyone goes about their own business. The opera singer didn’t particularly like to cook, especially since she couldn’t eat many dishes.
In the evening, Montserrat usually sat down to answer letters that came to her from different parts of the world. Although, most of the letters were processed in her office and responses were prepared, which Montserrat only had to sign.
Caballe loved to draw. The singer was especially good at paintings with an abundance of green; only on her wedding anniversary she surprised her husband with a pink painting “Dawn in the Pyrenees.”
Daughter Montserrat Marty Caballe followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a successful opera singer. In 1997, they performed together at the opening of the European opera season with the program “Two Voices, One Heart.”
At the pinnacle of glory
daughter of Monsita and Nikolai Baskov
Caballe counts his triumph from a specific performance in 1965, when the singer received a telegram: “Come to New York urgently. You are offered a part in Lucrezia Borgia. Montserrat had to replace a sick colleague. Entering the stage, she almost broke her heel from excitement, but at the end of the performance, the applause and encore cries turned into real ecstasy. The next day, The New York Times published the headline on the front page: “Callas + Tebaldi = Caballe.” So Montserrat woke up famous.
"Iron" Caballe
The role of Norma in Bellini's opera of the same name Montserrat counts among his highest achievements. It was under this title that her extensive biography was published, which became a bestseller all over the world. In 1974, Moscow heard a fantastic 
Caballe-Norma at the height of her talent, during the La Scala tour. Her singing - highest form creativity. She tried on almost one and a half hundred images.
The majestic Caballe has learned not to worry about her solid physique. Many years ago she came to terrible accident, received serious injury heads. Since then, part of the brain had atrophied, and the system responsible for burning fat in the body did not work. Therefore, if Caballe drank a glass of water, the effect was as if she had eaten a whole pie. But even such a problem was not able to unsettle her.
Montserrat She had iron willpower. After the same car accident, the singer, encased in a cast, moving on crutches, did not leave concert venues. And on opera stage Verona's costume designers came to the aid of the crippled prima. They came up with wide clothes with immense sleeves, where Montserrat was able to hide and slowly move around the stage in front of an unsuspecting audience. And just in case, nurses from the orthopedic clinic were dressed in the costumes of the court ladies under Elizabeth, whose role was performed by Caballe.
The wrath of unrivaled Montserrat
with Nikolai Baskov
Behind her always friendly smile hid a unique character, who was no stranger to incredible outbursts of anger if her professional requests and desires were left unheeded. But when the incident was over, she quickly calmed down. She could even ask for forgiveness if she noticed that the person was seriously scared. The tale was a story that took place in Paris at a concert at the Theater on the Champs-Elysees. Suddenly, during the performance of the next number, Caballe fell silent, in the deafening silence that followed, she came to the front of the stage, leaned over and asked someone: “Is everything okay? Can I continue? Then he explains to the stunned audience: “Sorry, but there was a gentleman in the front row who was recording me on a tape recorder, he ran out of tape, while he was changing it, I decided to take a break for a minute.”
DATA
By some mystical coincidence, 1965 was the last year theater career the great Callas. Prima seemed to have handed over the opera throne to a new diva.
with Freddie Mercury
In the 1980s, she agreed to the group leader’s offer to sing a duet. “Barcelona”, performed by them, became not only the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics, but also a worldwide hit. For a long time senora Montserrat nurtured a Russian opera and pop performer.
Together with the Swiss rock band Gotthard, she recorded the rock ballad “One Life One Soul” in 1997.
And in 2000 they gave a joint concert in the Milan Cathedral, which was published on DVD in the “Jubilaeum collection” series.
Updated: April 13, 2019 by: Elena
Spanish opera singer (soprano) Montserrat Caballe ( full name Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe and Folk, cat. Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe i Folch was born in Barcelona on April 12, 1933.
The name of the future singer was given in honor of the local sacred mountain, where there is a monastery named after Our Lady, whom the Catalans call Saint Mary of Montserrat.
In 1954, Montserrat Caballe graduated with honors from the Philharmonic Dramatic Lyceum of Barcelona. During her studies, she helped a family that was in a difficult financial situation and worked as a saleswoman, cutter, seamstress, while simultaneously studying English and French.
Thanks to the patronage of the Beltran family of philanthropists, Mata Monserrat was able to pay for her studies at the Barcelona Lyceum, and then this family recommended the singer to go to Italy, paying her all expenses.
In Italy, Montserrat Caballe was accepted into the Maggio Fiorentino theater (Florence).
In 1956 she became a soloist at the Basel Opera (Switzerland).
In 1956-1965, Montserrat Caballe sang in opera houses in Milan, Vienna, Barcelona, and Lisbon. There she performed many roles in operas different eras and styles.
In 1959, Caballe joined the Bremensky troupe opera house(Germany).
In 1962, the singer returned to Barcelona and made her debut in Arabella by Richard Strauss.
International recognition came to Montserrat Caballe in 1965, when she replaced American singer Marilyn Horne as Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall. Her performance became a sensation in the world of opera. The audience applauded the unknown singer for 20 minutes.
In the same 1965, Caballe performed at the Glyndebourne Festival and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, and since 1969 she has sung several times at La Scala. Montserrat's voice sounded in London's Covent Garden, the Paris Grand Opera, and the Vienna State Opera.
In 1970, on the stage of La Scala, Montserrat Caballe sang one of her best roles as Norma from the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini. In 1974, the singer toured with La Scala in Moscow with the opera Norma.
Montserrat has performed with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Georg Solti, as well as famous singers Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Marilyn Horne, Alfredo Kraus and Luciano Pavarotti.
She sang in such historical places as the Great Column Hall of the Kremlin, The White house in Washington, the UN General Assembly Auditorium in New York, the Hall of the People in Beijing.
Montserrat Caballe virtuoso bel canto singing.
The singer's repertoire includes operas composed by Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Tchaikovsky and others. She has performed about 125 opera roles and has released more than 100 discs.
Montserrat Caballe was known not only as an opera singer. In 1988, she, together with rock musician, leader Queen Freddie Mercury recorded the album "Barcelona". Barcelona song created for Olympic Games 1992, eventually became a symbol of Barcelona and the whole of Catalonia.
Montserrat also collaborated with the Greek composer and electronic music performer Vangelis in two musical works(March with me and Like a dream), which were included in her album Friends for Life, where she sang a duet with various famous pop stars including Johnny Holiday and Lisa Nilsson.
Caballe is one of the few opera singers whose pop recordings have charted.
The singer was actively involved in charity work. She was an Honorary Ambassador of the United Nations and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO. Established a fund to help sick children under the auspices of UNESCO.
Montserrat Caballe celebrated her 60th birthday with a concert in Paris, the entire proceeds of which went to the World AIDS Research Fund.
In 2000, she took part in a Moscow charity concert as part of international program"Stars of the World for Children", organized to help gifted and disabled children. She gave charity concerts in support of the Dalai Lama, as well as Jose Carreras, when he began to have health problems.
Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Folk is a world-famous Spanish opera singer, professional teacher vocalist, mother of two children
Date of Birth: April 12, 1933
Place of Birth: Barcelona, Spain
Zodiac sign: Aries
“Music is magic. Anyone lucky enough to live with her experiences something unusual. When you hear a melody for the first time, work on an image, sit down at the piano and start playing, you suddenly feel that the music penetrates your blood and passes through your entire body. This is not just a second flash. Enjoying music is the best thing in life."
Biography of Montserrat Caballe
City where I was born famous singer- Barcelona. Father often took little Montserrat for walks along the seashore. The sea is their common passion. She had wonderful parents who taught her and her brother to survive in difficult conditions.
In the house of a worker and a day laborer - Montserrat's parents, music was always playing. And little Montserrat also sang at Christmas parties arias from the opera “Madama Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini, which she had heard many times. She sang without words or repeated one line: “On a clear day, desired, desired, desired.” It was then that she realized that she wanted to make music.
Caballe was a student at the conservatory of the Liceu Theater in Barcelona. In the first eight months, she and other students did only physical education - the teacher wanted to develop them in physical and musically so that they can easily produce sound.
In difficult times, when there was not enough money, Caballe found a job that she had never done before - she had to cut fabric for scarves. People worked with her who provided her with all kinds of support, because they were very sorry. She had to quit her studies due to a difficult financial situation, but she continued to work. However, the Mata family of philanthropists came to the aid of the talented girl, and Caballe graduated from her studies in 1954.
She was 23 years old (in 1956) when she first appeared on the stage of the opera house in Switzerland, in Basel. Her whole family moved there from Barcelona. Her colleagues helped her in everything; there was a strong, friendly team at the theater. For example, since Caballe did not know German language, the staff translated the role into Spanish for her.
Then she left for the musical heart of Europe - Germany. She was offered a role at the Bremen Opera and began rehearsing Giuseppe Verdi's operas La Traviata and Il Trovatore. It was new school. Caballe unlearned large repertoire During this period, she received a base not only technically, but also musically. True, at that time she was thinking about leaving the profession, but her brother Carlos convinced her. By the way, it was Carlos Caballe who discovered Jose Carreras to the world.
Caballe returned to the stage of her native Liceu Theater in Barcelona only in 1962 with Strauss's Arabella.
The world learned about Caballe in 1965, when she replaced the American singer Marilyn Horne in the role of Lucrezia Borgia in Gaetano Donizetti's opera of the same name. Horne was pregnant, so the management of Carnegie Hall decided to invite Caballe. Her performance delighted the audience so much that Caballe was not allowed to leave the stage for 20 minutes and applauded the diva. Horn herself recalled this triumph:
“It was one of the most brilliant successes. She took New York by storm! Not everyone can do it, especially in this country.”
In 1965, Caballe was invited to sing the role of Margarita in Faust. Montserrat performed on this stage of Carnegie Hall more than once until 1988.
On January 24, 1970, the singer made her debut at La Scala in the already familiar role of Lucrezia Borgia. In subsequent years, she performed Mary Stuart, Norma, Louise Miller, and Anne Boleyn at the La Scala Theatre.
Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo about Montserrat Caballe:
“I saw the play Montserrat at La Scala. It was an unforgettable “Norma”, which went down in the history of this theater. I saw the audience's reaction after the "Casta Diva" aria. This happened not only at Norma, but also at other performances: the audience gave a standing ovation for about 40 minutes after Norma’s exit part.”
“We worked together for several years and each time we made some kind of discovery. And everything around us was filled with magic.”
In 1972 artistic director The London Opera's Denny Davis asked the singer to take part in the play "Lucrezia Borgia". Most of Caballe's discs were recorded in London. She took part in several performances at once: these were the terms of the contract.
In 1987, a significant event occurred that changed the whole world’s attitude towards opera. classical music. It was a duet of two great people: opera singer Caballe and rock singer Freddie Mercury with the composition “Barcelona”.
In November 2000, Caballe was invited to Moscow to take part in a charity concert-event of the World of Art Foundation, “Stars of the World for Children.”
Indian conductor Zubin Mehta about Montserrat Caballe:
“Montserrat set me and many other singers, such as Placido Domingo, that bar, that level that is very difficult to achieve.”
Personal life
In 1964, Caballe became the wife of a Spanish opera singer Bernabe Marti, with whom she first kissed on stage in the opera Madama Butterfly. Montserrat later joked:
“I’m probably the only Madame Butterfly who actually married Pinkerton.”
“I will never forget the feeling of happiness I felt on my wedding day.”
They were much more than husband and wife, they were friends and colleagues. Two years after the wedding, a son, Bernabe, was born, and in 1972, a daughter, Montserrat.
Almost the singer's entire life was devoted to work. My husband remembers the old days like this:
“I know how worried she was, how she wanted to spend some time with the children after work, but this is our profession: we have to be the best at it.”
