Montserrat Caballe Hbk

She's a phenomenon, in stamina as well as in talent: as of 1994, the Catalan soprano, who debuted in 1956, performed 3800 times, and at the age of 62 has only minimally slowed her pace (by contrast, Joan Sutherland, another indefatigable diva, is credited with 1800 performances between 1952 and her retirement in 1990). As this statistic suggests, operagoers have not tired of Caballe as Norma, Tosca, Turandot or Semiramide or in her other signature roles, which makes this lackluster authorized biography all the more disappointing. There are no sustained high Bs here, only an endless curriculum vitae to astonish but not engross readers. The few personal anecdotes included are silly, such as the one about Caballe's first kiss with tenor Bernabe Marti, whom she married in 1964. About her overweight, which the authors address at length, we're told that Caballe has glandular problems. Pullen and Taylor, British freelance music historians, may have done a job competent enough for the diva to sign ``every page of the finally revised draft,'' but opera devotees are likely to find it boring. Photos. (Apr.)