Elizabeth Caballero

===BODY===
Born in La Habana is a Cuban-American lyric soprano. She emigrated as a child in 1980 to the United States through Mariel. She initially studied singing at the University of Miami and later took private classes with maestro Manny Perez.

She participated in the Young Artists Program of the Florida Grand Opera (1999-2000 season) and obtained an Adler scholarship at the San Francisco Opera (2004) as well as being a member of the Merola Opera Program company for two summers (2001 and 2002). In 2001 she was a Grand National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.

She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Verdi di Trieste and in many other venues.

In November 2010 Elizabeth was nominated as one of the most influential people in Miami by Miami New Times Magazine and in May 2011 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Miami Dade College in Miami, FL. In early 2011, Elizabeth participated in Sabado Gigante as a judge for the American Idol competition, voice style for young opera singers: Her Majesty The Voice.

The Cuban-American soprano Elizabeth Caballero, a "marielita" who arrived in Miami as a very young child, has managed to carve out a space in the world of opera, which she approached by selling tickets at the Florida Grand Opera and where precisely in January she performed "La Rondine".

"I started selling tickets right after finishing high school, and from there I auditioned to participate in the chorus and then in the young artists program of the Florida Grand Opera," explained the singer, who said she was in her "thirty-somethings".

The entry into opera "was pure chance," she pointed out. "I liked to sing since I was a child and I studied piano. In my house we never heard opera, maybe zarzuelas or some recordings of Plácido Domingo, like in all Latin households".

She started studying singing because a teacher encouraged her when she was already at Miami Dade College, "although I would make fun of it, because it seemed to me like cartoons".

She arrived in Miami, like many other Cubans, in the Mariel exodus in 1980.
"What I do remember is that our boat, 24 feet and with more than 19 people, had some problem and the Coast Guard transferred the women and children to their vessel," explained the woman, who said she doesn't forget the "face" of her father, "staying in that boat".

When they arrived at the Florida Keys, an aunt picked them up, who was the one who financed the operation, and "everything became easier: We went to her house and everything started to go well".

"I fell in love with opera immediately, when I sang for the first time Musetta's waltz," from "La Bohème," she acknowledged. Just one year later, at 19, she dared to enter a competition organized by Luciano Pavarotti in Miami and made it among the hundred finalists.

Although she didn't win, she did start to take singing seriously, "just for singing before him and for what he told me in the semifinals, which were in New York, my first visit there. He told me I was a diamond that only needed to be polished".

"I don't see myself doing anything other than singing," said the soprano, for whom that is the secret to achieving what one wants, although "the competition and the career are so hard, especially because this is a profession based on opinions".

Caballero has given recitals accompanied only by piano and in which she sings, among others, "the first Italian song" she learned. "There is something very special about recitals. You face the public almost naked, without makeup, wigs or orchestras. It's something very intimate," she said emotionally.

The soprano has a special fondness for Spanish composers, so she also sings pieces by Enrique Granados (1867-1916), such as "The Maja and the Nightingale," an aria from "Goyescas," as well as "Poem in the Form of Songs," by Sevillian Joaquín Turina (1882-1949). She will dedicate the second part to operatic arias, something unusual in recitals, which are more dedicated to lyrical songs, as she explained.

"The opera Rondine she loves, because it's by Puccini, but it's not very Puccini. They asked him to do something less melodramatic than what he was used to. He tried, but he didn't manage it," said the soprano laughing, who pointed out that, although the opera was written at the end of the last century (it premiered in 1917), "its plot is very, very modern".