Brief biographical information about m cabalier. Opera singer Montserrat Caballe has died. Photo gallery. Named after the sacred mountain

Even those people who have nothing to do with opera have heard the name Montserrat Caballe. This greatest woman captivated an audience of millions with her lyric-coloratura soprano and excellent command of the bel canto technique.

It is unlikely that any of the new prima donnas can compete with Montserrat with the vastness of the repertoire and the number of concerts. The combination of lightness, smiling, femininity, kindness, confidence and calm allows us to call Caballe the ideal woman..

Opera diva Montserrat Caballe

Biography

The biography of Montserrat Caballe dates back to 1933. The opera diva's date of birth is April 12.

Childhood, youth

A girl was born in poverty. The Montserrat Caballe family barely made ends meet. My father was engaged in the production of chemical fertilizers, and my mother worked as a housekeeper. At school the girl was not liked for her aloofness and silence. In addition, due to poverty, Montserrat always came to class in the same dress. The children laughed at her. This offended Caballe very much. On top of that, after the birth of his brother, Monserrat's father became very ill.

The beginning of the path to Montserrat Caballe

The girl first heard opera at the age of seven. She remembered this experience for the rest of her life. Montserrat was so shocked by the death of Madame Butterfly that she cried all the way from home.
The girl decided to learn the aria by heart and did so. And in 1940, for Christmas, she performed it in front of the whole family.

Legendary opera singer

A panicky lack of money forced Montserrat to work at a handkerchief factory at a young age. Probably, Caballe would have continued to work in this field, but then the Bertrand family came to their city, which was looking for young talents. After listening, no one had any doubt that Montserrat was a real opera star.

Studies

The Bertrand couple helped the girl enter the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona. The future diva was supervised by Eugenia Kemmeni. It was she who managed to give the voice to the aspiring performer. Thanks to Eugenia, Montserrat maintained the strength and purity of her voice for 40 years. In addition, Kemenni revealed to Caballe all the secrets of vocal mastery. She taught her a special breathing technique, which the singer always used at her concerts.

Montserrat in his youth

All expenses and financial worries were taken care of by the Bertrand spouses. In addition, they took care of the education of Montserrat’s younger brother Carlos, found good job to her father. All this, in their opinion, was supposed to pay off when Caballe achieved fame and performed at concerts in the Gren Teatro del Liceo theater that they owned.

Career

In 1965, the biography of Montserrat Caballe was supplemented with one more highlight. On November 17, she performed Mimi in the opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini. The action took place on the stage of the Basel Theater. This performance became fateful for the aspiring singer and opened the way for her to the world stage.

In 1965, the singer was already known outside her homeland, in particular in Vienna, Milan, and Lisbon.

However, world success came to the singer only in 1966. Montserrat was then offered to replace the famous Marilyn Horne in the Carnegie Hall Opera.

Montserrat Caballe

After the performance, the audience gave Caballe a standing ovation. After the performance, the audience did not let the singer leave the hall for about half an hour.

The next fateful performance was participation in the opera “Norma” by Bellini. 4 years after the premiere of the play, the team led by Moserrat Caballe came on tour to Moscow.
The singer performed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in arias:

1. "Othello";
2. "Aida";
3. "Troubadour";
4. "Triviata";
5. "Louise Miller."

Montserrat collaborated with star orchestras, led by:

1. James Livian;
2. Herbert von Karajan;
3. Georg Solti;
4. Leonard Bernstein;
5. Zubin Mehta.

In the duet, Caballe performed with Freddie Mercury, Placido Domingo, Luciano Povorotti, Marilyn Horne and Elena Obraztsova.

The singer's repertoire includes 130 opera performances. For the whole creative career She has released more than a hundred records and was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Performance of a Classical Vocal Solo.
The opera diva also performed in a duet with Freddie Mercury. With the lead singer of the group “Queen” she recorded 2 songs for his album “Barcelona”.

Caballe and Freddie Mercury

In addition, Montserrat taught vocals and sang together with Nikolai Baskov. They performed a composition taken from “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Ave Maria.”

Opera diva with Nikolai Baskov

Personal life

The singer’s personal life is not as bright as her performances. Gave all my love to one to the only person and gave birth to two wonderful ones.

Wedding Montserrat Caballe

Family

Montserrat met her future husband at the play “Madama Butterfly”. As it turned out, this performance became twice fateful for the opera diva. At the performance, the man pressed his lips to hers so passionately that he could not tear himself away. The kiss lasted a very long time. Caballe immediately fell in love with the young man.

Montserrat Caballe with her husband

Barnabe later proposed to her. After a few years, Marty gave up his career. The man chose his family over the stage. For about 50 years the couple lived in perfect harmony.

Husband

The husband of the singer Marty Barnabe is a large and significant chapter in the biography of Montserrat Caballe. The singer became known to the general public in the mid-20th century. Marty is 5 years older than Caballe. The wedding took place on Mount Montserrat.

Singer's husband Marty Barnabe

The love and happiness of the couple was not hindered by either Caballe’s fame or her rapidly growing fortune, which was caused by the accident. After this, the receptors responsible for lipid metabolism turned off in the singer’s brain. With a height of 161 cm, Caballe weighed 100 kg.

Children

In their marriage, the couple had a daughter, Montserrat (in the photo she looks very much like her mother). Bernabe became the second child in the family. The biography of Montserrat Caballe and her daughter are somewhat similar, because the girl followed in the footsteps of her star mother and is already one of the best Spanish performers.

The opera diva's funeral is planned for Monday.

It is noteworthy that several years ago the singer underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on the brain. The intervention was successful. However, the singer had to relearn how to walk, talk and sing.

SENORA SOPRANO MONTSERRAT CABALLE

Destined to become the last of the caste of great opera divas of the 20th century. At one time they assigned the epithet “Divine”, and Renata Tebaldi was called “Amazing”. fully worthy of the title “Unsurpassed”.

The opera first shocked Montserrat at the age of seven, when she cried all the way back from the theater, upset by the death of Madame Butterfly. The girl learned the heroine's aria while listening to an old record, and vowed that she would become a famous and rich opera singer.

Talented ugly Montserrat Caballe

Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Folk was born into a very poor family in 1933. Dad was a worker at a chemical fertilizer plant, and mom worked part-time where she could. The family barely made ends meet. Montserrat was also not doing well at school. The children didn't like her because she was a silent savage and came to class in the same dress. Her classmates never missed an opportunity to laugh at her. To top all the troubles, my father fell seriously ill and left his job. But everyday difficulties only strengthened the girl’s character.

She got a job at a factory where handkerchiefs were embroidered. And soon fate smiled at her, bringing the Beltran Mata couple into the life. They were philanthropists who helped young talents. Thanks to their support, Caballe ended up at the famous Barcelona conservatory Liceo with the Hungarian teacher Eugenia Kemmeni. In four years, she cut the nugget, turning it into a real diamond. For many years every day great singer began with breathing exercises according to the Kemmeni system.

To Italy!

She studied at the Lyceum of Barcelona for twelve years. Having finished it with a “gold” medal, the future singer went to storm the bastions of the opera Mecca - the theaters of Italy. However, the 24-year-old “imposter” in her homeland and Puccini were in for severe disappointment: some petty impresario categorically told Montserrat that a stage career was out of the question for her - with such a figure, she should find herself a husband and raise children. All in tears, Caballe rushed home, where the furious Catalan, her brother Carlos, stood up to defend the family property. He personally volunteered to take the place of impresario of Montserrat so that in the future no one could interfere with his sister’s takeoff.

Caballe's professional debut took place in 1956 - she sang Mimi in La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini on the stage of the Basel Theater, small but famous.

Soon Montserrat married the then famous tenor Bernabe Marti. The young people met at the same iconic Madama Butterfly for Montserrat. During a love duet, he attracted Caballe to him and pressed his lips to hers. The passionate kiss lasted so long that the orchestra fell silent. Both the audience and the artists waited in bewilderment for the hero to break away from the young singer. Caballe appreciated Marty's resourcefulness and immediately fell in love with him. And the next day Bernabe proposed marriage to Montserrat.

Bernabe's career gradually faded away. But he was not jealous of his wife’s fame: he understood how countless men around the world envied the only owner of the heart of Senora Soprano, as Caballe is called in her homeland. And she reciprocated, giving her husband a son and a daughter - Bernabe Jr. and Monsit.

Montserrat Caballe Wedding Adventure

As collected and purposeful as the singer is on stage, she is so disorganized in life. She was late for her own wedding!

This was in 1964. The wedding was to take place in a church at a monastery nearby from Barcelona. The bride's mother, the strict Donna Anna, thought it would be very romantic: a ceremony overshadowed by the patronage of the Reverend Montserrat herself. And so on the wedding day, Caballe leaves with his mother in an old Volkswagen. And this has to happen for it to rain in Barcelona in August. By the time we got to the mountain, the road was bad. The car is stuck. Neither here nor there. The engine stalled. They had 12 kilometers left. All the guests are already upstairs, and mother and the bride are floundering below, and there is no chance of climbing up. And then Montserrat, in a wedding dress and veil, wet, stands on the road and begins to vote. Any paparazzi would give half his life for such a shot now. But then no one knew her. Passenger cars drove indifferently past a large dark-haired girl in a ridiculous white dress, desperately gesticulating on the roadway. Luckily, a shabby truck pulled up. Montserrat and Anna climbed onto it and rushed to the church, where the poor groom and his guests no longer knew what to think.

Safe haven of Montserrat

with her husband Bernabe Marti

As a true Catholic, the singer valued her family most of all, whose members wake up in different times, but they still all have breakfast together. Then everyone goes about their own business. The opera singer didn’t particularly like to cook, especially since she couldn’t eat many dishes.

In the evening Montserrat usually sat down to answer letters that came to her from different corners planets. Although, most of the letters were processed in her office and responses were prepared, which Montserrat only had to sign.

Caballe loved to draw. The singer was especially good at paintings with an abundance of green; only on her wedding anniversary she surprised her husband with a pink painting “Dawn in the Pyrenees.”

Daughter Montserrat Marty Caballe followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a successful opera singer. In 1997, they performed together at the opening of the European opera season with the program “Two Voices, One Heart.”

At the pinnacle of glory

daughter of Monsita and Nikolai Baskov

Caballe counts his triumph from a specific performance in 1965, when the singer received a telegram: “Come to New York urgently. You are offered a part in Lucrezia Borgia. Montserrat had to replace a sick colleague. Entering the stage, she almost broke her heel from excitement, but at the end of the performance, the applause and encore cries turned into real ecstasy. The next day, The New York Times published the headline on the front page: “Callas + Tebaldi = Caballe.” So Montserrat woke up famous.

"Iron" Caballe

Norma's party opera of the same name Bellini Montserrat counts among his highest achievements. It was under this title that her extensive biography was published, which became a bestseller all over the world. In 1974, Moscow heard a fantastic Caballe-Norma at the height of her talent, during the La Scala tour. Her singing is the highest form of creativity. She tried on almost one and a half hundred images.

The majestic Caballe has learned not to worry about her solid physique. Many years ago she was in a terrible accident and suffered a severe head injury. Since then, part of the brain had atrophied, and the system responsible for burning fat in the body did not work. Therefore, if Caballe drank a glass of water, the effect was as if she had eaten a whole pie. But even such a problem was not able to unsettle her.

Montserrat She had an iron willpower. After the same car accident, the singer, encased in a cast, did not leave the concert venues, walking on crutches. And on the Verona opera stage, costume designers came to the aid of the crippled prima. They came up with wide clothes with immense sleeves, where Montserrat was able to hide and slowly move around the stage in front of an unsuspecting audience. And just in case, nurses from the orthopedic clinic were dressed in the costumes of the court ladies under Elizabeth, whose role was performed by Caballe.

The wrath of unrivaled Montserrat

with Nikolai Baskov

Behind her always friendly smile hid a unique character, who was no stranger to incredible outbursts of anger if her professional requests and desires were left unheeded. But when the incident was over, she quickly calmed down. She could even ask for forgiveness if she noticed that the person was seriously scared. The tale was a story that took place in Paris at a concert at the Theater on the Champs-Elysees. Suddenly, during the performance of the next number, Caballe fell silent, in the deafening silence that followed, she came to the front of the stage, leaned over and asked someone: “Is everything okay? Can I continue? Then he explains to the stunned audience: “Sorry, but there was a gentleman in the front row who was recording me on a tape recorder, he ran out of tape, while he was changing it, I decided to take a break for a minute.”

FACTS

By some mystical coincidence, 1965 was the last year in the theater career of the great Callas. Prima seemed to have handed over the opera throne to a new diva.

with Freddie Mercury

In the 1980s, she agreed to the group leader’s offer to sing a duet. “Barcelona”, performed by them, became not only the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics, but also a worldwide hit. Long time senora Montserrat nurtured a Russian opera and pop performer.

Together with the Swiss rock band Gotthard, she recorded the rock ballad “One Life One Soul” in 1997.

And in 2000 they gave a joint concert in the Milan Cathedral, which was published on DVD in the “Jubilaeum collection” series.

Updated: April 13, 2019 by: Elena

Spanish opera singer, famous throughout the world for her bel canto technique.

Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Volk was born on April 12, 1933 in Barcelona in a family of ordinary workers. The girl's name was not chosen by chance by the parents, since the birth was fraught with difficulties. Doctors managed to save the child, whose neck was wrapped in the umbilical cord. The girl's mother considered this a sign from above and named her in honor of the Catalan mountain Montserrat, where the Virgin Mary took refuge.

Montserrat has loved singing since childhood. Despite the fact that fame and recognition came to her over the years, she did not consider herself lucky. The childhood and youth of the future public favorite were spent in poverty. IN school years she had to work part-time as a seamstress, cutter, and even as a salesperson. “If only someone knew how many handkerchiefs I made!” - she said. Montserrat was demanding and strict, did not like the words “lucky” and “favorite of fate”; in her opinion, success can be achieved through long and hard work.

Montserrat spent the money she received from her part-time job on studies, music lessons and learning French and Italian languages. At the same time, work activity in no way affected academic performance. After graduating from school, she intended to go to Italy to audition. But the parents did not have the means to send their daughter to another country. Fortunately, a family of philanthropists Meltran Bata was found, who took on all the expenses and wrote a letter of recommendation to the then famous baritone Raimundo Torres.

In Italy, Caballe got a job in the theater, where she worked for a short time - at one of her performances she was noticed by the director of the Basel Opera Theater and invited her to work in Switzerland. But not everything was so smooth: when the young performer first arrived in Italy, one of the local impresarios advised her to get married and bake pies for the children, they say fat people no place on stage. Then she found support in her brother Carlos, who became her personal impresario. Thanks to a family contract, the singer began an international career.

By the way, Caballe never managed to lose weight during her lifetime. The singer seriously gained weight after a car accident. The part of the brain responsible for lipid metabolism atrophied and, no matter what Montserrat did, the excess weight did not go away.

Unexpected success came to Montserrat Caballe after she was offered to perform the role of Lucrezia Borgia, which had been beautifully performed by the American opera singer Marilyn Horne before her. After Montserrat's performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, the audience stood and applauded her for more than half an hour. The performer charmed not only the audience, but also the critics. After this fateful performance, her career began to develop rapidly, and the whole world learned about her.

Bellini's opera Norma, which premiered at La Scala, became the next peak in Montserrat's career. The singer performed with this and many other leading roles all over the world: in the Great Hall of Columns of the Kremlin, the White House in the USA, in the UN Auditorium and in the Hall of the People in China. Among her stage partners were leading tenors: Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavorotti. Throughout her life, she took part in more than 120 operas, and hundreds of discs were released with her participation.

Caballe has never been afraid to experiment on stage. Her duets with rock performers topped the music charts. One of the most famous duets is with rock star Freddie Mercury, leader of the Queen group. Caballe and Mercury performed at the opening Olympic Games 1992 hit "Barcelona".

Despite the enormous success in musical creativity, family was above all else for Montserrat. She did not hide the fact that if circumstances demanded it, she would leave the stage. They met their husband Martinez Bennabe when he was invited to replace a sick tenor in Madama Butterfly. After kissing on stage, the young people fell in love with each other for life.

The wedding of Marty and Montserrat took place on the sacred mountain, after which the singer was named. The couple raised two children: daughter Montsita and son Bernabe. Caballe's husband performed with his wife for several years, but then he got sick and began to spend more time at home. According to Caballe, they never had any quarrels in the struggle for creative primacy, since her husband understood that if necessary, she was ready to give up music. She repeatedly confirmed her position with deeds - once her son got sick, and she canceled all upcoming concerts for a week. The theater tried to sue her, but to no avail.

This is not last time in Caballe's life when she sat in the dock. In 2015 Montserrat received suspended sentence and a fine of more than 250 thousand euros for evading taxes for five years by transferring fees from performances to Andorran banks. When the scheme was discovered, she was sentenced to six months in prison. Fortunately, she managed to appease the prosecutor, and the prison sentence was replaced with a suspended sentence.

Caballe performed on stage until the end of her life, but never felt like a world-class star. She said that she didn’t like to pretend to be something, because that’s what only people do. full zeros. She believed that you should not be proud of what was given to you from above, because this is the merit of nature and God.

Montserrat died on October 6, 2018 at the age of 86 due to problems with the urinary or gallbladder. At the request of the family, the cause of death will not be made public. On October 7, a farewell ceremony took place for the opera prima. The funeral will take place on October 8. The singer's niece said that Montserrat will be buried next to the graves of her parents.

Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballe.

Origin and education

Montserrat Caballe ( full name- Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepcion Caballe y Folk) was born in Barcelona on April 12, 1933 in the family of a factory worker. Since childhood, she showed interest in music and was fond of singing. She studied music and vocals at the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, ​​where she graduated with a gold medal in 1954.

Music career

After completing her studies, she went to Italy and then to Basel (Switzerland). She made her debut at the Basel Opera as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. In 1958 she sang at the Vienna State Opera, and in 1960 she first appeared on the stage of La Scala (Milan). She became famous for her soprano voice and bel canto technique. Caballe gained international fame in 1965 when she replaced American singer Marilyn Horne in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall (New York). In 1970, she performed one of her best roles - Norma in the opera of the same name. Vincenzo Bellini. With this part in 1974 she came on her first tour to Moscow. Subsequently, she performed in Russia several times, last concert singer in Moscow took place in June 2018 as part of a tour dedicated to her 85th birthday.

In total, the singer’s repertoire included over 125 opera roles. She was called "senora soprano" and "great prima donna." She performed at such venues as Covent Garden (London), Metropolitan Opera (New York), Grand Opera (Paris), and also toured with concert programs. She has worked with outstanding orchestras and conductors of our time - Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Georg Solti. She performed with Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus. She contributed to the career of José Carreras, who made his debut in 1970 as Flavio in Norma. The singer took notice of the young tenor, and Carreras became one of her favorite partners; they sang together in more than 15 operas.

In the 1980s, Caballe collaborated with rock musician Freddie Mercury. In 1988, their joint album Barcelona was released. Its theme song, Barcelona, ​​became one of the two anthems of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In 1997, the singer released the disc “Friends for Life,” where she recorded works of rock and pop music. Her partners were Carlos Cano, Bruce Dickinson, Johnny Holiday, Lisa Nilsson and others. In the same year, the rock ballad One Life One Soul was recorded together with the Swiss rock band Gotthard. In addition, she collaborated with Italian singer Al Bano, with Greek composer and electronic music artist Vangelis.

In 2002, after a 10-year break caused by illness, Caballe sang the role of Catherine of Aragon in Camille Saint-Saëns' opera Henry VIII (in opera house Liceu, Barcelona), in 2004 - the title role in Jules Massenet's opera "Cleopatra" (Liceu, Barcelona), and in 2007 - the Duchess of Krakenthorpe in Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Daughter of the Regiment" (Vienna State Opera). In 2016, Caballe performed a concert in Sofia (Bulgaria).

Charity

Caballe was involved in charitable activities. Thus, the singer donated the entire proceeds from the concert in Paris dedicated to her 60th anniversary to the World AIDS Research Fund. In November 2000, as part of international program“Stars of the World for Children” she performed in Moscow with a concert, the proceeds from which went to help gifted disabled children.

Confession

The singer was awarded orders and medals from various countries, including the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic, the French Order of Arts and Letters, and the Russian Order of Friendship.

She received several Grammy awards, including Best Vocal Solo (1969).

In 1994 she became a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Personal information

In 1964 she married tenor Bernabe Marti. The family has two children: son Bernabe Marti and daughter Montserrat Marti, an opera singer.

It is known that relatives of Montserrat Caballe on the maternal side live in St. Petersburg, who were taken to Soviet Union during civil war in Spain in the 1930s.