BARCELONA: Spain’s world-famous opera singer Montserrat Caballe was laid to rest on Monday at a funeral in Barcelona where tenor Jose Carreras hailed her as “the greatest soprano of the 20th century.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Catalonia’s separatist president Quim Torra also said their goodbyes to Caballe, who died on Saturday aged 85.
Hailed as one of the greatest singers for her vocal virtuosity and dramatic powers, Caballe charmed audiences for half a century with a huge repertoire that saw her perform across the globe.
Nicknamed “la superba” in her native Spain, she was propelled into the mainstream when her duet with Freddie Mercury, a boundary-busting combination of opera and rock, became the anthem for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
“For me, Montserrat was the greatest soprano in the 20th century,” Carreras told reporters.
“The only person who could get close was Maria Callas.”
Greek composer Vangelis, with whom Caballe collaborated, sent a wreath with the message: “For the one and only Montserrat Caballe.”
Born in April 1933 to a humble Barcelona family, Caballe was buried next to her parents in the city’s Sant Andreu cemetery in a northern working-class district.
Opera star Montserrat Caballe laid to rest in Barcelona
Opera star Montserrat Caballe laid to rest in Barcelona
- Hailed as one of the greatest singers for her vocal virtuosity and dramatic powers, Caballe charmed audiences for half a century with a huge repertoire
- She was propelled into the mainstream when her duet with Freddie Mercury, a boundary-busting combination of opera and rock, became the anthem for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona
Hafez Galley’s exhibition pays tribute to two Egyptian artists who shaped a visual era
- Artworks by Attyat Sayed and El Dessouki Fahmi will be on display until Feb. 28
JEDDAH: Hafez Gallery in Jeddah has opened an exhibition showcasing the works of influential Egyptian artists Attyat Sayed and El Dessouki Fahmi. The exhibition runs until Feb. 28.
Kenza Zouari, international art fairs manager at the gallery, said the exhibition offers important context for Saudi audiences who are becoming increasingly engaged with Arab art histories.
“Attyat Sayed and El Dessouki Fahmi’s decades-long practice in Cairo established foundational models for how artists across the region approach archives, press, and ultimately collective memory,” Zouari told Arab News.
Both artists emerged in an era when newspapers and magazines played a central role in shaping Egypt’s visual culture. Their early work in press illustration “demanded speed, clarity, the ability to distill complex realities into a single, charged image,” the gallery’s website states.
Seeing the works of both artists side-by-side is breathtaking. It’s fascinating to witness how press illustration shaped such profound and lasting artistic voices.
Lina Al-Mutairi, Local art enthusias
Heba El-Moaz, director of artist liaison at Hafez Gallery, said that this is the second time that the exhibition — a posthumous tribute to the artists —has been shown, following its debut in Cairo.
“By placing their works side by side, it highlights how press illustration, often considered ephemeral, became a formative ground for artistic depth, narrative power, and lasting influence, while revealing two distinct yet deeply interconnected artistic paths within modern Egyptian visual culture,” she told Arab News.
Sayed’s work evolved from black-and-white illustration into “layered, dynamic compositions that translate lived emotion into physical gesture, echoing an ongoing negotiation between the inner world and its outward form,” the website states. Viewed together, the works of Sayed and Fahmi “reveal two distinct yet deeply interconnected artistic paths that contributed significantly to modern Egyptian visual culture.”
The exhibition “invites visitors into a compelling dialogue between instinct and intellect, emotion and structure, spontaneity and reflection; highlighting how artistic rigor, cultural memory, and sustained creative exploration were transformed into enduring visual languages that continue to resonate beyond their time,” the gallery states.
Lina Al-Mutairi, a Jeddah-based art enthusiast, said: “Seeing the works of both artists side-by-side is breathtaking. It’s fascinating to witness how press illustration shaped such profound and lasting artistic voices. The exhibition really brings their vision and influence to life.”
