She subsequently moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she made her professional debut in 1956 as a last minute replacement as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème.

From the fall of 1962 through the spring of 1963 she toured Mexico, at one point singing the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

[15] Caballé's international breakthrough came in 1965 when she replaced a pregnant Marilyn Horne in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at New York's Carnegie Hall, which earned her a 25-minute standing ovation.

Later that year, Caballé made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival singing her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and portraying the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

")[18]In December 1965, she returned to Carnegie Hall for her second bel canto opera, singing the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's recently rediscovered Roberto Devereux.

She returned to Philadelphia in 1967 to sing the title roles in Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly, and to the Met to sing three Verdi heroines: Leonora alongside Richard Tucker as Manrico in Il Trovatore,[22] Desdemona in Otello with James McCracken in the title role,[23] and Violetta in La traviata, with Tucker and George Shirley alternating as Alfredo.

She appeared as Leonora in Philadelphia, and returned to the Met as Amelia in a critically acclaimed production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Domingo as Riccardo, and Reri Grist as Oscar.

[29] In 1973 she returned to Chicago to perform the title role in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda with Viorica Cortez but left mid contract because she was suffering with phlebitis.

In 1976 Caballé appeared at the Met once again as Norma and sang her first Aida in that house, alongside Robert Nagy as Radamès and Marilyn Horne as Amneris.

[33][34] She appeared in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss and sang Mimì in Puccini's La bohème with Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo.

She was admired less for her dramatic instincts and acting skills than for her superb technique, vocal shadings, and exquisite pianissimos, which were inspired by Miguel Fleta.

[49] In 1987, Caballé made a rare excursion into the world of pop music when she released a duet with Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the rock band Queen, which was titled "Barcelona".

The title track later became the anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics which was hosted by Caballé's native city, and appeared again in the pop music charts throughout Europe.

Caballé also performed the song live, accompanied by a recording by Mercury, who had died in 1991, before the 1999 UEFA Champions League final in Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.

Callas is dead, Kiri Te Kanawa is busy making commercials for Sainsbury's, and Mirella Freni has never really risen out of the narrow confines of being an opera lover's opera-singer.

In 2003, she starred in her own documentary film Caballé: Beyond Music, which featured many well-known opera singers, including Domingo, Pavarotti, Carreras, and Renée Fleming.

In 2003, Patrick O'Connor wrote in Gramophone that:no diva in memory has sung such an all-encompassing amount of the soprano repertory, progressing through virtually the entire range of Italian light lyric, lirico-spinto and dramatic roles, including all the pinnacles of the bel canto, Verdi and verismo repertories, whilst simultaneously being a remarkable interpreter of Salome, Sieglinde and Isolde.

[58]On 6 June 2013, Caballé was declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan after visiting the de facto independent state of Nagorno-Karabakh and meeting with local leaders, despite official warnings issued by the Azerbaijani embassy in Spain.

In December 2015 the Spanish court found her guilty of fraud and gave her a six-month suspended jail sentence, ordering her to pay a fine of €254,231.

[63] On 20 October 2012, during her tour in Russia, Caballé suffered a stroke in Yekaterinburg and was quickly transferred to the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona.