Montserrat Caballé in Tenerife

Musical Critic David Moratón

“Guapa!”, someone shouted just when Montserrat Caballé came out onto the stage of the Teobaldo Power Auditorium in La Orotava, on the past March 10th, within the 23rd Multimedia Festival of Tenerife. It can be said that she responded, Montserrat, with an infectious smile that made the audience applaud even more.

The auditorium, as one can imagine, was absolutely full. Even in the same scenario where chairs were placed that surrounded Caballé. Although I imagine that the people who were seated right behind her could not enjoy her as they would have liked.

With a program with which she has toured the world number, accompanied by pianist Manuel Burgueras, since 1991 (Schumann habitually), she offered a recital with songs and arias from opera, ordered by chronological order, from the Baroque period to the heroes of the 20th century, and by idioms: Italian (Stradella, Scarlatti, Cherubini, Mercadante), French (Niedermeyer, Leoncavallo, Gounod), German (Brahms) and Spanish (Turina and Obradors). A carefully selected repertoire – there has been a substantial vehement rediscovery of forgotten operas in recent years – to give a sample of her truthfulness and capacity to shine in all the styles.

Regarding her interpretation, she followed a shrewd strategy: she knew very well that in the first intervention, the “Pietà Signore” of Stradella, the impression that her voice was somewhat calibrated when, in effect, the instrumental vocal reached an exceptional interpretative level, above all with the work of Mercadante, which provoked a tremendous applause.

In the pause that separated the final programs, Montserrat caught her breath and began to express herself, gracefully, making jokes with the expectant audience that gave her. And already in the second part, as expected, the recital continued brilliantly with the lieder of Brahms, and other more contemporary works by Turina and Obradors. Although I recognize that some of the works that I integrated into the program are not to my taste, if it is the power of the beautiful voice, of the vocal technique, and of the charisma of Montserrat Caballé.

The audience and the critics have always consecrated her as one of the best sopranos in the world, like the successor of Callas. During 20 years she was at the summit, solicited by the best theaters and orchestras on the planet. And after half a century of profession, and more

4000 performances – something that no soprano has been able to equal – it is almost a miracle that she still survives with qualities as she has made internationally famous and recognized. A voice that, they say, has been arranged with expensive but light and delicate expense in the “serious”, capable of issuing long notes without losing the potential, has a vocal technique, with an absolute mastery of intonation and of the intensities. And besides, personal qualities – her sense of humor, her closeness – that made the Orotava audience surrender totally.

El Dia, Tenerife, Spain
13 March
2007