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 ($690,900) 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 soporano 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 centered 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.($1 = 0.7237 Euros) (Reporting by Inmaculada Sanz; Writing by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tom Heneghan)