Montserrat Caballe: A Legendary Spanish Opera Singer

Montserrat Caballe As a legendary Spanish opera singer, Montserrat Caballe is considered one of the greatest opera singers of her generation. In terms of production and performance, she made more than 80 recordings and preformed almost 4,000 performances. Well trained as a young singer in her life, Caballe, certainly, had a special talent, which was sheer powerful voice. Her performance was not restricted in Italian style exemplified by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. She went further and excelled other styles, such as Mozart, Wagner, the Romantic French composers, Slavic and more so. “Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Folch was born on April 12, 1933, in Barcelona, Spain, in the shadow of Antoni Gaudí's Catalan Modernist of Sagrada Família church .” The beginning of her life was poor; she had barely one dress to wear to school. Adding to that, in 1939, when the right wing forces of General Francisco Franco defeated the Spain's democratic government, this added salt to injury and led to intensify the family’s problems. However, things suddenly changed, since she …show more content…
After World War II, she started her musical career as opera singer and reached its peak in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. She studied at the Barcelona Conservatory with Dolores Frau. In 1946, she made her operatic debut as Mimi in Barcelona, and gradually, she became more and more remarkable figure in European. She expended much more after her success in Europe, and reached America by making her first debut at CARNEGIE HALL in 1950. Also, she performed with the Metropolitan Opera from 1950 to 1961. She was well-known for her delicately lyrical voice, her wonderful musicianship. De Los Angeles performed at Bayreuth, Covent Garden and other leading theaters and festivals throughout the