Montserrat Caballe: New Essays in Ethnic American Literatures

Reputedly the highest-paid female operatic singer of all time, Montserrat Caballe is one of the few truly great sopranos to have appeared since World War II. Catapulted into the limelight on her Carnegie Hall debut in 1965, she has sung throughout the world in an astonishing array of roles. Now, late in her career, a time when most sopranos confine themselves to a handful of manageable roles, she has embarked on an ambitious exploration of long-forgotten operas. Not surprisingly, this talented and durable performer's fame has reached far beyond the world of opera, as evidenced by her partnership with the late Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the one-time rock supergroup Queen, on the best-selling album Barcelona. Caballe now embodies, perhaps more completely than any other contemporary singer, what is meant by the term "diva". This first-ever full-length biography reveals why, charting the progress of "La Superba" from a deprived childhood in war-torn Spain, through her years of training and struggle for recognition, to her present world-star status. The authors, Robert Pullen and Stephen Taylor, shrewdly analyze Caballe's art on both stage and disc, and in the process provide an intriguing insight into the international operatic scene, discussing most of the great figures of the last thirty years - from Callas and Sutherland to Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras. Caballe has cooperated fully with the authors on this biography, making available private documents, photographs, and an endless number of often amusing personal reminiscences.