Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé, or to give her full name, María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch was born in Barcelona in 1933 and along with older Victoria de los Angelos became one of the city’s greatest lyric sopranos of the postwar era. Her parents, who thought she wouldn’t survive birth, vowed to name her after Catalonia’s holy mountain if she survived.

She began singing as a child in her convent school, and at age eight entered the Conservatory at the Liceu, and won the Liceu’s gold medal when she finished in 1954. Her career, however started slowly: she joined the Basle Opera and had minor roles until one of the lead singers fell ill and she took over the role of Mimì in La Bohéme.

She began to earn a reputation in the opera houses of Europe, but her really big break in 1965 occurred again when another star, in this case Marilyn Horne, was indisposed, and Caballé was called in to sing the title role of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall. Few sopranos hit the high notes with her control and sweetness, and the 25-minute standing ovation that followed was the beginning of an international bel canto career, where she would star in numerous performances of Donizetti and Bellini, along with singing most of the Verdi repertoire in the great opera houses around the world in 80 different roles; here's a beautiful rendition of the aria O mio babbino caro from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.