# A Biography to Love: Monterrat Caballe= Casta Diva



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

After the awful biography of La Norman, I am getting into Caballe's Authorized Biography. So different!!!! I've only gotten to the part where she is starting her professional career but the book was worth reading just for this part. I firmly feel her addiction to food is a result of the extremely precarious straights her family was in up until the time she received a sponsorship for her musical education. She even had to work at a sweat shop till she got backing. Her education was to put it bluntly... simply extraordinary. Her first year was devoted only to musical scales and doing what could conveniently be called yogic breathing practices. This is unbelievable.... she acquired the ability which she kept throughout her career of being able to exhale her breath on one intake of air for anywhere from 1:45 min to 2 min!!!!!!!!!!!! He pianissimi were learned during this period. You get a real sense for what informed her singing. I'll keep you posted. She was rail thin as a young woman, as hard to believe as that sounds. John


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Seattleoperafan said:


> After the awful biography of La Norman, I am getting into Caballe's Authorized Biography. So different!!!! I've only gotten to the part where she is starting her professional career but the book was worth reading just for this part. I firmly feel her addiction to food is a result of the extremely precarious straights her family was in up until the time she received a sponsorship for her musical education. She even had to work at a sweat shop till she got backing. Her education was to put it bluntly... simply extraordinary. Her first year was devoted only to musical scales and doing what could conveniently be called yogic breathing practices. This is unbelievable.... she acquired the ability which she kept throughout her career of being able to exhale her breath on one intake of air for anywhere from 1:45 min to 2 min!!!!!!!!!!!! He pianissimi were learned during this period. You get a real sense for what informed her singing. I'll keep you posted. *She was rail thin as a young woman, *as hard to believe as that sounds. John


She was very pleased Karajan offered her a contract until she found it had a clause in it requiring her to shed 30 pounds


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Thanks to you I am about to order her book. Thanks Seattle.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Thanks to you I am about to order her book. Thanks Seattle.


I did the same, at first I was shocked by the postage but ...U.K is less expensive with shipping cost


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I was worried I had spoken too soon about the excellence of Casta Diva, but one could be tempted to stay up all night and read the whole of this large tome. I've read much of it by now and it is a fascinating story told well. The big impression I have gotten is how improbable it was that someone who was ill so much of her life could have had what may well have been the busiest opera career of any singer. How many singers do you know who have sung over 40 roles from Wagner and Strauss to a wide variety of Bel Canto works. Those of you who ordered this book: you are in for a fun read. There is an extensive discography at the end. The details of the drama of her New York debut in Lucretia Borgia are most vivid! Enjoy.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I was worried I had spoken too soon about the excellence of Casta Diva, but one could be tempted to stay up all night and read the whole of this large tome. I've read much of it by now and it is a fascinating story told well. The big impression I have gotten is how improbable it was that someone who was ill so much of her life could have had what may well have been the busiest opera career of any singer. How many singers do you know who have sung over 40 roles from Wagner and Strauss to a wide variety of Bel Canto works. Those of you who ordered this book: you are in for a fun read. There is an extensive discography at the end. The details of the drama of her New York debut in Lucretia Borgia are most vivid! Enjoy.


Lucrezia Borgia is a curse for some singers.
( Fleming left Italy and never returned after booing in La Scala)


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Did any of you read this book yet?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am in the throes of reading it. I am up to her innovative teacher who is training her in an unusual way, strengthening her throat muscles. Fascinating. Also, I was amazed to discover that she was very slim at one point.
Downside: That doggone book is H-E-A-V-Y!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Did any of you read this book yet?


It's still on it's way


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Did any of you read this book yet?


I borrowed it from the library way back in the 1990s. An absorbing read, which I enjoyed immensely.


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