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Victoria de los Ángeles (1 November 1923 – 15 January 2005) was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career in music 3 Personal life and death 4 Recognition 5 Partial discography 6 References 7 External links Early life[edit] She was born Victoria de los Ángeles López García[1] in the porter's lodge of the University of Barcelona, to Bernardo Lopez Gómez (or Gamez), a university caretaker, and Victoria García. She studied voice under Dolores Frau, and guitar with Graciano Tarragó, at the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating in 1941 after just three years, at the age of 18. Career in music[edit] In 1941, while still a student, she made her operatic debut as Mimì in La bohème at the Liceu, afterwards resuming her musical studies. In 1945, she returned to the Liceu to make her professional debut as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. After winning first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition in 1947, she sang Salud in Falla's La vida breve with the BBC in London in 1948. She was accompanied on many of her early recordings by both Graciano Tarragó [es] and his daughter, the guitarist Renata Tarragó. In her early years in particular, she also sang a lot of florid music (music antiche). While she later made fewer appearances in opera, she continued to give recitals focusing on mostly French, German Lieder and Spanish art songs or songs with Nahuatl texts by Mexican composer Salvador Moreno Manzano into the 1990s.[2] In 1949, she made her first appearance in the Paris Opéra as Marguerite. The following year, she made her debut in Salzburg and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Mimì, and in the United States with a recital at Carnegie Hall. In March 1951, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Marguérite, and she went on to sing with the company for ten years. In 1952, she became an instant favourite in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón as the title role in Madama Butterfly. She returned to Buenos Aires many times until 1979. She sang at La Scala in Milan from 1950 to 1956 and, in 1957, she sang at the Vienna State Opera.[citation needed] After making her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser in 1961, she devoted herself principally to a concert career. However, for the next twenty years, she continued to make occasional appearances in one of her favourite operatic roles, Bizet's Carmen. She was among the first Spanish-born operatic singers to record the complete opera, having done so in 1958 in a recording conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, using the recitatives added by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet's death. Though Carmen lay comfortably in her range, she nevertheless also sang major soprano roles, the best known of which were Donna Anna, Manon, Nedda, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Mimi, Violetta and Mélisande. James Hinton, Jr. praised the curious means she used to achieve her characterisation of Rosina in the 1954 Met's The Barber of Seville: ...she — almost literally – does nothing at all that is in the conventional sense 'effective'. She is rapidly becoming one of those great rarities... a personality who makes everyone believe in her characterizations. Even in that there is a flaw, for she really offers no characterization. The personality is always the same... Yet the audience believes... that this is the way whichever character she happens to be dressed as must have been..."[3] De los Ángeles performed regularly in song recitals with pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons, occasionally appearing with other eminent singers, such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Her recitals of Spanish songs with the pianist Alicia de Larrocha, a fellow Barcelona native who was her close friend, were also legendary. She sang at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, aged 68.[4] She made many widely acclaimed recordings, including those of La vida breve, La bohème, Pagliacci, and Madama Butterfly. The last three paired her with the outstanding tenor Jussi Björling. She was particularly appreciative of Björling's unique talent. In de los Ángeles' biography by Peter Roberts, de los Ángeles noted that "in despite of technical developments, none of the Jussi Björling recordings give you the true sound of his voice. It was a far, far more beautiful voice than you can hear on the recordings he left".[5] The government of France named her a Chevalier the Légion d'honneur in 1994. Personal life and death[edit] She married Enrique Magrina in 1948. He and one of their two sons predeceased her. She died of respiratory failure in her native Barcelona on 15 January 2005, aged 81, and was buried in the Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona. She had been hospitalised for a bronchial infection since 31 December 2004. In her native Catalonia she usually appeared, in the post- Franco era, under the Catalan form of her name, Victòria dels Àngels. Recognition[edit] Her obituary in The Times (UK) noted that she must be counted “among the finest singers of the second half of the 20th century".[6] James Hinton, Jr. praised her "meltingly lovely middle voice".[3] Elizabeth Forbes, writing in UK's The Independent, also noted that "It is impossible to imagine a more purely beautiful voice than that of Victoria de los Ángeles at the height of her career in the 1950s and early 1960s".[2] She was ranked number 3, after Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland, in the BBC Music Magazine 's List of The Top Twenty Sopranos of All Time (2007).[7] The municipal music school of Sant Cugat del Vallès is named for her (Escola Municipal de Música Victòria dels Àngels) and is located on a plaza bearing her name (Plaça Victòria dels Àngels). Several other municipalities in Catalonia have streets named after her. Partial discography[edit] 1952: "La Vida Breve" (complete): Manuel de Falla, RCA Victor Red Seal, LM-6017, 1952, with Emilio Payá (baritone), Rosario Gomez (mezzo-soprano), Pablo Civil (tenor). Ernesto Halffter, conductor, with the Orquestra Simfònica de l'Òpera de Barcelona 1953: "Faust": André Cluytens (cond.) L'Opéra de Paris orchestra; Nicolai Gedda (Faust); Boris Christoff (Mephistopheles). EMI. 1954: "Madama Butterfly": Gianandrea Gavazzeni (cond.) Teatro dell'Opera de Roma Orchestra: Tito Gobbi (Sharpless); Giuseppe di Stefano (Pinkerton). EMI Records. 1955: "Les nuits d'été": Hector Berlioz, Charles Munch (cond.), Boston Symphony Orchestra. EMI. 1955: "Manon": Pierre Monteux (cond.) Chorus and Orchestra of the Théâtre-National de l'Opéra-Comique. EMI. 1956: "La bohème": Thomas Beecham (cond.) RCA Victor Orchestra; Bjorling (Rodolfo); Robert Merrill (Marcello); Giorgio Tozzi (Colline); Lucine Amara (Musetta). EMI. 1958: "Faust": André Cluytens (cond.) L'Opéra de Paris orchestra; Nicolai Gedda (Faust); Boris Christoff (Mephistopheles). EMI. 1959: "Carmen": Thomas Beecham (cond.) Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France; Nicolai Gedda (Don José); Janine Micheau (Micaëla); Ernest Blanc (Escamillo). EMI. 1959: "La traviata": Tullio Serafin (cond.) Teatro dell'Opera de Roma Orchestra: Carlo del Monte (Alfredo); Mario Sereni (Germont). EMI. 1965: "La Vida Breve" (complete): Manuel de Falla, EMI CD M 7 69590 2, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (cond.) Orquesta Nacional de España, Orfeón Donostiarra; Inés Rivadeneira (la abuela); Carlo Cossutta (Paco); Ana Maria Higueras (Carmela). 1990: "Chants d'Auvergne": Joseph Canteloube, EMI Studio DRM CD M 7 63176 2, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat (cond.) Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux 1992: "Traditional Catalan Songs", with Geoffrey Parsons (pianist). Collins Classics 1993: "The Fabulous Victoria de los Angeles" (4 CD boxed set, with recordings from 1960 through 1993), EMI. 2008: "Victoria de los Angeles: The Voice of an Angel" (Overview of career on 7 CDS / 165 tracks on mp3) EMI. ***** Victoria de los Angeles, who died on Friday aged 81, was a lyric soprano whose technical mastery, attractive personality and unfettered expressiveness brought her acclaim in opera houses around the world during a career which spanned five decades; she was also an accomplished recitalist whose range included works from the Baroque to Lieder, and whose regular encores of Spanish songs made her a firm favourite with audiences. Though she had begun with early music, made her name as a coloratura soprano, and all her life recorded the songs of her native Spain (though she was very Catalan at root), it was as an interpreter of lyric roles that she was most highly regarded. The recordings she made during the height of her career are still staples; it would be easier to list the major names of classical music of the last century with whom she did not work than those she did: they included Beecham, Barbirolli, Karajan, Solti, Munch, Sabata, Mehta, Cluytens and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Victoria de los Angeles had a pure, creamy tone almost instrumental in its steadiness, but which somehow encompassed an entirely human warmth. At its best, her phrasing seemed unimprovable, with the melodic line incorporating the words with flawless intonation without portamento. Charm and sympathy were always part of her armoury, but her range broadened to include at times a surprising depth of passion and force, though she was never an analytical or intellectual interpreter. Victoria Gómez Cima was born on November 1 1923 in the porter's lodge of the University of Barcelona, where her father Bernardo Lopez Gómez (or Gamez), was caretaker. It was a highly musical family and though Victoria was educated at the Instituto Balmes, she spent much of the time trying out the acoustics in the university's lecture halls with her guitar. By the age of nine, she was queuing all day outside the opera house. At school, her incessant singing delighted her fellow students, though it annoyed her teachers. They did, however, immediately recognise her talent, and she was sent to study, under Dolores Frau, at the city's Conservatory, where she completed the six-year course in half the usual time. She made her formal debut at the Liceo Theatre in 1945 as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro (though her first appearance had actually been as Mimi in 1941, while still a student), then received plaudits in Madrid, where she sang with Gigli, aged 22. She joined the Ars Musicae group and developed a formidable training in Lieder, French and Spanish song, and in Baroque and Renaissance music – all fields in which she continued to perform and record alongside her operatic appearances throughout her career. Wider international attention first came when she won the Contest of Music and Singing at Geneva in 1947, ahead of a field of 120 contestants. Victoria de los Angeles, as she had renamed herself for the stage, immediately embarked on a concert career which took her around Europe, Canada, South America and South Africa, and which, later that year, introduced her to British wireless audiences, when she sang Salud in Falla's Vida Breve on the Third Programme. Her operatic roles took her to La Scala, the Grand Opera in Paris, Covent Garden and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, while her festival appearances included Edinburgh, the Maggio Fiorentino in Florence, the Holland Festival and the Switzerland Festival. By the time of the Coronation Festival here she was firmly established as a star. Her conquest of London began in earnest in 1950, when she appeared as Mimi in La Bohème – her third visit to Covent Garden – and she was hailed as "outstanding" in a recital at the Wigmore Hall, accompanied by Gerald Moore. In August, she sang at two Proms, winning particular praise for her renditions of Spanish songs. She made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall that October, where the composer and critic Virgil Thomson described her voice as "one of rare natural beauty, the schooling impeccable, the artistry first class". At La Scala, she made her debut in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos. She returned to Covent Garden at the close of the year, in the title role of Massenet's Manon, a part for which she was to become especially acclaimed. The Daily Telegraph's critic found that her "beautiful legato and the poignant quality of her middle and lower register were particularly remarkable in the dramatic scenes", though he was less convinced that she was suited to the lighter, more coquettish passages. Her early breadth of training meant that she was as comfortable as Elsa in Lohengrin later that month, and in a short programme featuring Schumann and Brahms the following March at the Albert Hall, and though some critics were always inclined to think that she had a tendency to sentimentalise in Lieder, none made the same charge against her interpretations of the Baroque. That month, too, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, which Virgil Thomson reckoned a felicitous choice of role. A few days later, she impressed as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, before rounding off the season as Mimi. Throughout the 1960s, she appeared in most of the major roles available to her at all the world's major houses: she was a regular not only at Covent Garden, the Met, Paris and La Scala, but the Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Vienna State Opera, San Carlo in Naples and many others. Her repertoire included Don Giovanni, Il barbiere de Seviglia, Pelleas et Melisande, Die Meistersinger, Traviata and Dido and Aeneas, while on the concert stage she performed widely, becoming a regular at the Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls in this country, and generating tumultuous applause for her regular encores of Spanish music, accompanied by herself on guitar (or perhaps with Julian Bream or some other luminary). She opened the Bayreuth Festival in 1961 with Tannhauser. That year, she made a celebrated appearance at Covent Garden in June, taking on the roles of both Santuzza and Nedda in Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, in a gala performance in the presence of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. There was a memorable farewell concert for Gerald Moore, one of her regular accompanists, at the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. It was recorded and issued by HMV. These regular visits to Britain indicated a genuine fondness for the country, though she was an remarkably hard worker, and, under the business management of her husband, undertook regular engagements around the world. She was, every bit as much as Maria Callas or Renata Tebaldi, the embodiment of the jet-set diva of the 1960s when photographed mounting the steps of an aeroplane. Once in her seat, though, she often took out her knitting. She never entirely gave up performing, though she retired officially from the operatic stage in 1979, and announced that she would abandon performance altogether in 1998, after the death of one of her sons. But though her career was extraordinarily long-lived and her artistry remained superb, her greatest days were unquestionably during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1989, she appeared at the Beaumaris Festival, singing a suite of Catalan love songs. The sponsor, Barry Baynham of the Ty'n Lon Volvo garage at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndronwllllantysiliogogogoch, Anglesey, who had paid £3,000 to bring her to the festival, admitted it had little relevance to selling Swedish cars in rural Wales but thought it well worth the money. "The goodwill it creates is considerable," he explained. "I reckon we have already sold six or seven cars as a result." In 1992, she closed Barcelona's Olympics with a farewell aria, but was followed by Sarah Brightman. The following year, before a recital at the Wigmore, she had some more bad luck when 10 million lire (£4,500) and £250,000-worth of jewellery were stolen from her bag backstage before her concert. The show went on. Victoria de los Angeles received innumerable awards, including the Edison Award, six Grands Prix du Disque, the Cross of Lazo de Dama of the Order of Isabel the Catholic and the Condecoración Banda de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X. She made more than 80 recordings for EMI, for whom she was under exclusive contract for some three decades from 1948. They included 21 complete operas and more than 25 solo recitals; Sir Thomas Beecham's recordings of La Bohème and Carmen are mainstays of the company's catalogue, as were her recordings of Faust and as Madama Butterfly (there are two separate recordings of the latter). She can be heard to advantage in the 1955 recording of Manon, under Pierre Monteux's baton, which captures much of the flavour of the Opera Comique's quintessentially French approach. Although dimly recorded, she also sings with much warmth and feeling as Amelia – notably in a duet with Tito Gobbi – in the Rome Opera's disc of Simon Boccanegra under Santini, who also conducted a fine 1960 recording of her as Madama Butterfly. She married in 1948, Enrique Magriñá, who predeceased her. They had two sons, one of whom predeceased her.  *****  Victoria de Los Angeles (Soprano) Born: November 1, 1923 - Barcelona, Spain Died: January 15, 2005 - Barcelona, Spain The famous Spanish soprano, Victoria de Los Angeles (real name: Gómez Cima), studied at the Barcelona Conservatory with Dolores Frau. In 1941 she made her operatic debut as Mimi in Barcelona, but then resumed her training. In 1945 Victoria de Los Angeles made her formal operatic debut as Mozart's Countess in Barcelona. After winning 1st prize in the Geneva International Competition in 1947, she sang Salud in La Vida Breve with the BBC in London in 1948. In 1949 she made her first appearance at the Paris opera as Marguerite. In 1950 she sang at the Salzburg Festival for the first time. She made her debut at London's Covent Garden as Mimi in 1950, and continued to appear there regularly with notable success until 1961. She also sang at Milan's La Scala from 1950 to 1956. In October 1950 she made her first appearance in the USA in a Carnegie Hall recital in New York. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Marguerite in March 1951, and remained on its roster until 1956. In 1957 she sang at the Vienna State Opera, and was again on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1961. After making her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elisabeth in 1961, Victoria de Los Angeles devoted herself principally to a concert career. However, she continued to make occasional appearances in one of her favourite operatic roles, Carmen, during the next 2 decades. Her concert career continued as she entered her 7th decade, highlighted by a well-received recital appearance at New York Alice Tully Hall in March 1994. Among her other acclaimed operatic roles were Donna Anna, Rosina, Manon, Nedda, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Violetta, and Mélisande. As a concert artist, she excelled particularly in Spanish and French songs. **** Victoria de los Angeles is one of the greatest legends of the opera of the 20th century. She was one of the most acclaimed sopranos of the best opera theaters of the world, one of the favorite voices of the Gran Teatro del Liceo where she made her debut and of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where the public enjoyed her performances for a decade. She also was one of the most admired singers of the European and Spanish venues, where she offered historical recitals, most of them immortalized in anthological recordings. With a sensitivity which she knew how to share and communicate, always with generosity, through the voice, possibly the best instrument of all, and the most fragile. With this instrument, with her sensitivity and her mastery of technique, Victoria de los Angeles created a kind of art which was greater than a single musical form, such as the opera. Lied, concert and oratorio were settings in which the Barcelona soprano felt equally comfortable from the beginning, and from her debut at the Palau de la Música Catalana in May of 1944. After a brilliant international career spanning five continents (she was always well received and loved by the public of the most prestigious theaters and concert halls around the world), with great discretion, after giving a recital in on December 28, 1997, Victoria’s small figure slipped away between the curtains of the great hall of the the Main Hall of the National Theatre of Catalonia. On January 15, 2005, she left us forever, leaving behind the gift of a priceless legacy: her singing.  ebay 5344