Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé

Born: April 12, 1933
Died: October 6, 2018
in Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Montserrat Caballé i Folch or Folc (full name: María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), known simply as Montserrat Caballé, was a Catalan Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo.

Caballé became popular to non-classical music audiences in 1987, when she recorded, at the request of the International Olympic Committee, "Barcelona", a duet with Freddie Mercury, which became an official theme song for the 1992 Olympic Games. She received several international awards and also Grammy Awards for a number of her recordings.

Caballé was born in Barcelona on 12 April 1933. Her family was of humble financial circumstances due to the Civil War. She studied music at the Liceu Conservatory, and singing technique with Napoleone Annovazzi, Eugenia Kemény and Conchita Badía. She graduated with a gold medal in 1954. She subsequently moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she made her professional debut in 1956 as a last minute replacement as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème. She became part of the Basel Opera company between 1957 and 1959, singing a repertoire that included Mozart (Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte) and Strauss (Salome) in German, unusual for Spanish singers, but which proved useful for her next engagement at the Bremen Opera (1959–1962). In 1961, she starred as Iphigénie in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the National Theatre of S. Carlos in Lisbon, alongside Raymond Wolansky, Jean Cox, Paul Schöffler and others.

In 1962, Caballé returned to Barcelona and debuted at the Liceu, singing the title role in Strauss's Arabella. From the fall of 1962 through the spring of 1963 she toured Mexico, at one point singing the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This was followed by several more successful appearances at the Liceu in 1963.

Caballé's international breakthrough came in 1965 when she replaced a pregnant Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall, which earned her a 25-minute standing ovation. While this was her first engagement in a bel canto opera and she had to learn the role in less than one month, her performance made her famous throughout the opera world. Later that year, Caballé made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival singing her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and portraying the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. ...

Source: Article "Montserrat Caballé" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for Montserrat Caballé...

Never Boring - The videos
Title: Never Boring - The videos
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 11, 2019
Type: Movie
Freddie’s promos and his stage performances with Montserrat Caballé include eight that have been painstakingly reassembled from the original 35mm film rushes to give them the best-ever visual and sound quality.
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Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender
Title: Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender
Character: Self
Released: September 25, 2012
Type: Movie
Archive footage of interviews, concerts and personal material bring to light the solo performance work of Mercury, the lead singer of Queen.
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Title: Die schönsten Weihnachts-Hits
Character: Self
Released: November 29, 2006
Type: TV
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Title: Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel
Character: Self
Released: January 31, 2004
Type: TV
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Caballe beyond music
Title: Caballe beyond music
Character: Herself
Released: January 1, 2003
Type: Movie
This documentary spans the life and career of Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, one of the very best ever - a legend, arguably the "queen" of all divas still singing. In locations throughout the world where Ms. Caballé sang, we hear interviews with Ms. Caballé, her family, and by opera and music giants like Claudio Abbado, José Carreras, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Dame Joan Sutherland, and Zubin Mehta, also appearing often in clips showing joint collaborations. Of these, the film includes passages from Caballé's most acclaimed roles such as "Norma"', "Tosca" , "Turandot" and her earliest recorded live performance (1966) as "Anne Boleyn," in addition to poignant and powerful live concert duets with fellow Spaniards Plácido Domingo, Juan Pons, and José Carreras.
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Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story
Title: Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story
Character: Self
Released: December 8, 2000
Type: Movie
Freddie Mercury (1946-91) was not just a man with one of the most pure and amazing voices the world has heard, but he was also the lead singer for Queen, the most enthusiastic rock band in history.
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Title: Beckmann
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1999
Type: TV
Reinhold Beckmann hosts a weekly talk show.
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Title: Die Johannes B. Kerner Show
Character: Self
Released: January 22, 1998
Type: TV
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Title: Die Harald Schmidt Show
Character: Self
Released: December 5, 1995
Type: TV
The Harald Schmidt Show is a German late night talk show hosted on Sky Deutschland by comedian Harald Schmidt. The show first aired from 5 December 1995 to 23 December 2003 on Sat.1. Schmidt then moved his show to Das Erste as Harald Schmidt and Schmidt & Pocher, but he returned to Sat.1 on 13 September 2011. After cancellation on Sat.1, the show continued on Sky Deutschland in September 2012.
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Title: alfredissimo! Kochen mit Bio
Character: Self
Released: December 27, 1994
Type: TV
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Title: Musik liegt in der Luft
Character: Self - Singer
Released: February 2, 1991
Type: TV
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Title: Flitterabend
Character: Self - Singer
Released: December 1, 1988
Type: TV
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Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - La Nit
Title: Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - La Nit
Character: Self - Performer
Released: October 8, 1988
Type: Movie
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Romanza final (Gayarre)
Title: Romanza final (Gayarre)
Character: Soprano
Released: April 29, 1986
Type: Movie
Biography of Julian Gayarre (1844-1890), one of the best tenors of all times. At 19, a professor at the Conservatory of Music in Madrid heard him singing for the first time and offered him a scholarship to continue his studies. His artistic life runs between continued success, becoming the world's greatest tenor. But in 1890, while singing at the Teatro Real in Madrid, a failure in his voice is like a cruel reminder of what would happen a few days later: his death at a young age. The doctors gave a diagnosis, but his friends know that Julian Gayarre died because he could not sing anymore.
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Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Title: Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Character: Maria Boccanegra
Released: July 13, 1985
Type: Movie
The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children.
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Title: Melodien für Millionen
Character: Self
Released: February 2, 1985
Type: TV
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Hérodiade -  Gran Teatro del Liceo
Title: Hérodiade - Gran Teatro del Liceo
Character: Salomé
Released: January 2, 1984
Type: Movie
A retelling of the story of John the Baptist, Salome, Herod Antipas and Herodias, but strikingly less psychological and bloody than Richard Strauss's opera "Salome".
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Title: Champs-Elysées
Character: Self
Released: January 16, 1982
Type: TV
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Title: Wetten, dass..?
Character: Self
Released: February 14, 1981
Type: TV
A long-running German-language entertainment television show based on the format of the British show You Bet! and the American show Wanna Bet?.
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Title: Verstehen Sie Spaß?
Character: Self
Released: January 31, 1980
Type: TV
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General Report
Title: General Report
Character: Self - Opera Singer
Released: December 7, 1977
Type: Movie
How does a country go from a dictatorship to a democracy? A detailed report on the political representation in the heart of the Spanish Transition, only a few months after General Franco’s death, when the sincere democratic vocation of Spanish people must effort to destroy, one heavy brick after another, the wall that those who supported the dictatorship and those who fought it from the exile built with resentment, hatred and prejudices.
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Norma
Title: Norma
Character: Norma
Released: July 20, 1974
Type: Movie
Oroveso, a Druid High Priest, gathers his people in a sacred forest and prays to their gods for help in vanquishing the Romans who have taken over Gaul. Unbeknownst to Oroveso, his daughter, Norma, a High Priestess, has for some time been the lover of Pollione, the leader of the Romans; she has, in fact, not only broken her sacred vow of chastity but has borne two children to the warrior. Norma uses her position to dissuade the Gauls from attacking the Romans, claiming that the gods have told her that the time is not favourable. Recorded at Théâtre Antique d'Orange, 1974
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self - Main Guest
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV
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Title: Goldene Kamera Verleihung
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1966
Type: TV
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Title: Bambi Awards
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1948
Type: TV
The Bambi, often called the Bambi Award and stylised as BAMBI, is a German award presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television to personalities in the media, arts, culture, sports, and other fields "with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public that year", both domestic and foreign. First held in 1948, it is the oldest media award in Germany. The trophy is named after Felix Salten's book Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its statuettes are in the shape of the novel's titular fawn character. They were originally made of porcelain until 1958, when the organizers switched to using gold, with the casting done by the art casting workshop of Ernst Strassacker in Süßen.
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Cilea - Adriana Lecouvreur - Caballe, Cossotto, Carreras (NHK 1976)
Title: Cilea - Adriana Lecouvreur - Caballe, Cossotto, Carreras (NHK 1976)
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
An all-star cast led by soprano Montserrat Caballé in one of her most acclaimed portrayals. Fiorenza Cossotto sings the role of Adriana’s nemesis, the Princess of Bouillon, and José Carreras is Adriana’s lover, Maurizio, in this live 1976 performance from Tokyo. The NHK Symphony Orchestra is under the direction of Gianfranco Masini. This performance of Adriana Lecouvreur documents the art of Montserrat Caballé at its peak, the soprano employing her singularly ravishing vocal quality and staggering technical facility fully in the service of the drama. In her portrayal of the title character - described in the opera as a supreme tragedienne, self-trained and completely artless - Caballé matches Adriana's attributes with a naturalistic approach that is profoundly moving in its honesty and directness. This production also boasts the presence of Fiorenza Cossotto and José Carreras, stars of the highest caliber with whom Caballé performed this opera on many occasions all over the world.
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José Carreras Collection: Montserrat Caballé & José Carreras
Title: José Carreras Collection: Montserrat Caballé & José Carreras
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
Famed tenor José Carreras takes the stage at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre with soprano and fellow Spaniard Montserrat Caballé in this memorable evening of music filmed live in 1989. Selections include ballads, arias and duets by some of the world's most famous composers, including Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gioacchino Rossini, Antonio Vivaldi, Vincenzo Bellini, Alessandro Scarlatti and Alessandro Stradella.