The soprano who became an opera superstar

Montserrat Caballé was the very embodiment of a prima donna. The Spanish soprano could be tempestuous—she once hurled a chair off the stage when it failed to support her weight during Tosca, and she frequently pulled out of scheduled performances at the last minute. “It is a standard joke in the business,” a New York Times critic noted in 1986, “that ‘Mme. Caballé is available for only a limited number of cancellations this season.’” None of this detracted from the sheer power and beauty of Caballé’s voice. Known as La Superba to fans and critics, she could hold notes for 20 seconds, navigate intricate vocal passages with ease, and heighten an aria’s emotional punch by singing pianissimo—very quiet—high notes with perfect clarity. “What emanates from Caballé’s throat,” a critic wrote of her 1965 breakout performance, “can best be described as total purity.” Caballé was born in Barcelona to a middle-class family, said The Times (U.K.). At age 4, she fled with her opera-loving parents to the mountains after their house was bombed during the Spanish Civil War. “There was no food, no money, no clothing,” Caballé recalled. Her fortunes changed when she turned 17 and a wealthy local family began sponsoring the young singer’s education at the Barcelona conservatory. After graduating, she sang auditions for Italian opera companies, said The New York Times. “Nervous and untried, she failed them all.” Trying her luck in Switzerland, she joined the Basel Opera in 1956, taking small parts until she was called upon to sing Mimì in La Bohème “in place of an ailing soprano.” Her international breakthrough came in 1965 when she stood in for a pregnant Marilyn Horne in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, said The Washington Post. The audience interrupted her performance with “five minutes of sustained applause.” She soon became a regular at leading opera houses around the world. Crossover pop success came in 1987 when she collaborated with Queen singer Freddie Mercury on the album Barcelona—the title track became the theme song of her hometown’s 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Caballé continued to perform into her 80s, shunning the idea of retirement. “If I cannot sing,” Caballé said in 1997, “I have the impression that I no longer exist.”