Spain charges soprano Montserrat Caballe over tax evasion
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish prosecutors have charged Montserrat Caballe, one of the world's best-known sopranos, with tax evasion for failing to declare some 500,000 euros (410,350 pounds) of income, a court document showed on Tuesday.
The document accuses Caballe, 80, of not declaring income from performances in 2010 in Andorra, a principality nestled in the eastern Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France.
A lyric soprano renowned for her performances of Italian opera, she is also famous for collaborating with the late Freddie Mercury of rock group Queen on his hit album Barcelona - the city of her birth - and the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
Spain has been cracking down on tax evasion as it attempts to fill public coffers and rein in a large public deficit during a prolonged economic crisis. Caballe was not immediately available to comment on the charge.
Some of the highest-profile tax investigations are centred around Princess Cristina, the younger daughter of King Juan Carlos, and Barcelona's Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, one of the world's highest paid athletes.
(Reporting by Inmaculada Sanz; Writing by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
