Montserrat Caballé — soprano known for her flawless tone
Montserrat Caballé, the versatile Spanish soprano whose pure, gleaming tone and impeccable technique illuminated a wide range of operatic and song repertoire, died on Saturday, Oct. 6, at a hospital in Barcelona. She was 85 and had been in the hospital for a month.
A spokesman for the hospital confirmed her death and said that her family had requested the cause of death not be released.
Caballé, nicknamed “La Superba,” was renowned for the sheer beauty of her singing, which was unruffled and polished, and for the power that lay behind those silvery tones. She could unspool a vocal line of flawless smoothness at seemingly any volume, from a roar to a whisper; even her most heroic performances boasted a deep vein of lyricism.
Just as impressive was the vast range of music that she could command. Although she was best known for her mastery of the Italian operatic repertoire, including works of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini, she also gave incisive accounts of music by Strauss, Dvorák, Massenet and Mozart. Her extensive discography includes vivid accounts of the title roles in Verdi’s “Aida,” Puccini’s “Turandot,” Strauss’ “Salome” and more.
Caballé was also an acclaimed recitalist, championing songs of her native Spain as well as more standard fare.
Among her worldwide appearances in all the major opera houses, Caballé performed frequently at the San Francisco Opera. She made her company debut here in 1977, singing the title role in “Turandot” for the first time in her career. The production, which also starred tenor Luciano Pavarotti, was hailed as a “sensational” evening by San Francisco Chronicle music critic Robert Commanday, who went on to praise Caballé’s “wonderfully controlled tones, unalloyed and perfect.”
In subsequent years, Caballé returned to sing the role of Elisabeth in Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” — the only other mounting of the opera in the company’s history before the one that took the stage last month — and the demanding title roles in Rossini’s “Semiramide” and Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda.”
As news of her death spread, condolences poured in from the world of opera and Spain’s highest authorities.
King Felipe VI tweeted that Caballé was “the great lady of opera, legend of universal culture, the best of the best” and that “her personality and unequaled voice will accompany us forever.”
For tenor José Carreras, opera lost its “best soprano” with the passing of Caballé. “Of all the sopranos that I have heard live, I have never heard anyone like Montserrat,” Carreras told Catalunya Radio.
Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch was born April 12, 1933, in Barcelona, into a working-class family. She began studying at the Liceo there at age 8 and won the school’s Gold Medal on graduating in 1954. After taking roles in Basel, Switzerland, and Bremen, Germany, Caballé was ushered into stardom in 1965 after serving as a last-minute stand-in for Marilyn Horne in a concert performance of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
After that, Caballé was rarely absent from the stage. In addition to her operatic and recital engagements, she recorded a pop duet, “Barcelona,” in 1987 with Freddie Mercury, of the rock group Queen. The song was a hit and later became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics in the city.
In 2015, Caballé was convicted of tax fraud and was given a suspended sentence of six months in prison, which she avoided since first convictions resulting in sentences of less than two years in Spain can be suspended by a judge. She had failed to pay the Spanish treasury more than 500,000 euros ($550,000) in taxes on her earnings.
Caballé dedicated herself to various charities and was a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. She also established a foundation for needy children in Barcelona. Among her survivors are her husband, the Spanish tenor Bernabé Martí, with whom she sometimes appeared in concert; a son, Bernabé Jr.; and a daughter, Montserrat Martí, also an opera singer. Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman