Victoria de los Ángeles

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

Life and work

De los Angeles from 1938 studied at the conservatory in her hometown of Barcelona in Dolores woman and made ​​her operatic debut in 1941 at the age of 18 years as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. After another three years of study, she began her professional singing career in 1944 with a concert in Barcelona, ​​the 1945 performances at the Liceu as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro followed. In 1947 she won the first prize at the International Vocal Competition in Geneva and adopted following 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, 1950 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème, in the same year at La Scala as Ariadne auf Naxos ( Strauss) and at the Salzburg Festival; 1951 after a tour of South America at the Metropolitan Opera in New York also as Marguerite. The ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera, she served on until 1961; she appeared there in 13 rolls on in a total of 103 performances. Also at the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival ( 1961-62 as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser ) she was a guest.

The singer appeared frequently on tenor Jussi Björling with the Swedish. The two were - like Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano - 'perfect couple on the international opera stages. The conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham recording of La Bohème ( with Robert Merrill and Giorgio Tozzi ) is one of the most prestigious recording productions of the 20th century.

In 1961, Victoria de los Angeles occurred only rarely on the stage and focused from now on recordings and song singing. In her recitals she sang alongside German lieder and French mélodies many in the international concert circuit rather unknown Spanish and Catalan songs. Your rare opera performances, mostly in the title role of Bizet's Carmen, but were still very successful with audiences. In the season 1990/91 she was again on the stage of the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and sang the role of Queen Isabel in scenic scenic cantata Atlantida the premiere of Manuel de Falla (supplemented by Ernesto Halffter ).

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

  • Vincenzo Ramón Bisogni, Victoria de los Ángeles. Nella Musica per Vivere (s Sopravvivere ), Zecchini Editore, 2008.
803115
de