Victoria de los Ángeles

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Victoria de los Ángeles

Victoria de los Ángeles , in Catalan Victòria dels Àngels , actually Victoria de los Ángeles López García (born November 1, 1923 in Barcelona ; † January 15, 2005 ibid) was a Spanish opera singer ( soprano ). She used her first name as a stage name.

Life

De los Ángeles studied from 1938 at the Conservatory in her hometown of Barcelona with Dolores Frau and made her operatic debut in 1941 at the age of 18 as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. After a further three years of study, she began her professional singing career in 1944 with a concert in Barcelona, ​​which was followed in 1945 by appearances at the Liceu as Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro . In 1947 she won first prize at the International Singing Competition in Geneva and then recorded de Falla's opera La vida breve for the BBC in London .

In 1949 she made her debut at the Paris Opera as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust , in 1950 at the London Opera House Covent Garden as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème , in the same year at La Scala in Milan as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni ( Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ) and at the Salzburg Festival ; In 1951, after a tour of South America at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, also as Marguerite. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera ensemble until 1961; she appeared there in 13 roles in a total of 103 performances. She was also a guest at the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival (1961–1962 as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser ).

The singer has often performed with the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling . The two were - like Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano - as a dream couple on the international opera stages. The recording of La Bohème (with Robert Merrill and Giorgio Tozzi ) conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham is one of the most important record productions of the 20th century.

From 1961 Victoria de los Angeles appeared rarely on stage and from then on concentrated on recording records and singing songs. In her recitals, she sang German art songs and French melodies as well as many Spanish and Catalan songs that were rather unknown in international concert halls. In 1962 she was the first classical musician to record Sephardic music. In May 1988 she sang, accompanied by guitarist Ichiro Suzuki , at the opening concert of the Concurso y Festival de la Habana in Havana , directed by Leo Brouwer . Her rare opera appearances, mostly in the title role of Bizet's Carmen , continued to be very successful with audiences. In the 1990/1991 season she appeared again on the stage of the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and sang the role of Queen Isabel in the scenic premiere of the scenic cantata Atlántida by Manuel de Falla (supplemented by Ernesto Halffter ).

Victoria de los Ángeles died of bronchitis in a clinic in Barcelona at the age of 81 .

literature

  • Vincenzo Ramón Bisogni, Victoria de los Ángeles. Nella Musica per Vivere (e Sopravvivere) , Zecchini Editore, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Victoria de los Ángeles  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Giles, Victoria de los Angeles, 81, Spanish Soprano; Sang at the Metropolitan Opera for a Decade , The New York Sun, January 17, 2005
  2. ^ [1] Poster of the Teatro alla Scala, accessed on September 2, 2019
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Lendle: Cuban impressions. The IV Concurso y Festival de la Habana. A report. In: Guitar & Laute , Volume 10, 1988, Issue 5, pp. 51-53; here: p. 51 f.
personal data
SURNAME Ángeles, Victoria de los
ALTERNATIVE NAMES dels Àngels, Victòria; López García, Victòria dels Àngels (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 2005
Place of death Barcelona