victoria de los angeles
soprano
NOVEMBER 01, 1923

‘I always had a very romantic concept of music. For me, it was something that came from the soul, something not contrived but spontaneous – lifting you, fulfilling you naturally. Victoria de los Angeles’^[1]

Born in Barcelona on this day in 1923 to poor but hard-working parents^{[2] [3]}, Victoria de los Angeles was one of the most loved performers of her time. Her connection with audiences, whether on the opera stage or concert hall podium was the very essence of her art. In her own words, ‘With a good audience, I find that I can do things that I really never believed to be possible. When all you’ve got to sing to is a microphone, there’s none of that human warmth! When I sing in an opera house or a concert hall, I have an intuitive feeling about the audience’s response. That is very important. I gain confidence from them. I find that I can do things for them that I really didn’t believe would be possible. But in a recording studio you really have to forget about that altogether.’^[4]

Her beginnings were not auspicious, as by her own report, she was a shy child.^[5] It was music and singing that helped her overcome this shyness, and it was her elder sister Carmen that encouraged her to sing and when she was sixteen-years-old entered Victoria in a local vocal competition that nudged her in the direction of considering singing as a career rather than medicine or literature.^[6]

She began studies at the Barcelona Conservatorio with Dolores Frau, who was to remain her only singing teacher.^[7] To her great good fortune young Victoria came to the notice of a well-connected music-lover and semi-professional musician, José Maria Lamaña, whose father had been at one time President of the Conservatorio, and who performed regularly with Ars Musica. Ars Musica had been founded by Lamaña in 1935 as a seven-piece chamber ensemble with the goal of reviving older Spanish repertoire.^[8] Lamaña not only found financial backers from Catalan aristocrats and industrialists to support her studies,^[9] but managed Victoria’s burgeoning career, providing her with her style (under-stated with simple gold bracelet, pearl earrings, classical dress), from which she never deviated throughout her long career.^[10] Lamaña ‘had no intention of allowing Victoria to sing for money until she was ready. The preparation of a great voice is like the honing of a blade. If the initial work is well and patiently done, the blade will need only a little stropping for it to retain its keenness.’^[11]

Her professional debut, nevertheless, was at age 19 in Barcelona as Mimì in La bohème. The year was 1941.^[12] Her Madrid debut in 1947, was with non-other than Beniamino Gigli in Manon. It was decided that her Madrid debut needed to be with star quality given her growing reputation.^[13] On the back of winning the Geneva Singing Competition in 1947, she was invited to La scala, but in her shyness and desire to be back ‘home’ as soon as possible, she turned down the offer! In the words of her biography she received a phone call whilst in Geneva:

[Oldani] ’We heard the broadcast. Magnificent. We would very much like you to come and sing for us here.’

‘Oh, I’d love to, but I’m afraid I’m going home today. I’ve got my ticket here.’

‘I quite understand, of course, but I am sure we can arrange something. It would only be a brief detour. You could change your ticket and fly back via Milan.’

‘No, thank you. I want to go home. They’re waiting for me.’

‘Um…I don’t think you understand. This is La Scala. We are asking that you come to sing for us at La Scala.’

An incredulous Oldani put down the telephone in Milan.^[14]

International success was not guaranteed and indeed her first recital in Scandinavia in a 2000-seat hall had only twenty-seven people in the audience.^[15] This was repeated in Latin America when in Brazil a mere twelve people attended. ‘I nearly invited the twelve people there to come up on stage,’ Victoria remembers. ‘It was a lovely concert – pure music-making with friends.’^[16]

By 1950 de los Angeles had been invited to Covent Garden, and in 1951 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut and she regularly sang at both houses until 1961.^[17]

Her most notable roles were Rosina, Violetta, Madama Butterfly, Mimì, Manon, and Desdemona in the Italian repertoire; Marguerite, Melisande and Carmen in the French and she appeared two years running in Bayreuth as Elisabeth.^[18] Her experience at Bayreuth seems to have been one of her happiest professional engagements and her appreciation of Wieland Wagner as a producer was immense as she later commented, ‘In many ways those are the best artistic conditions in which I ever worked.’^[19]

What of her voice though? How did those who heard her live react? J.B.Steane wrote, ‘For a start, the voice in its prime was so pure and so opulent. To song after song you could listen with uninterrupted pleasure to the sheer sound, with never a scrape nor a rattle, never a hint of surface wear or anything mean about the quality. But that of itself gives a poor idea, for it tells of what there was not….’^[20] Her colleague, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf said of her, ‘She is quite astounding. She sings with miraculous ease and her legato is unsurpassed. Once in 1952 (or so) I heard her as Violetta and I decided not to sing it again.’^[21] Shawe-Taylor noted that she, ‘possessed a warm, vibrant instrument of unusual clarity and flexibility, somewhat dark and southern in quality but capable of much tonal variety. In her best years the timbre of her voice was exceptionally sweet, and she was a most communicative artist in both song and opera.’^[22]

Her rapport with audiences was legendary, but she was also a consummate ‘singing obsessive’. She enjoyed talking about singing and was ever-ready to learn from others; she said of Marian Anderson, for example, ’I have never discussed singing with anyone as much as with Marian. She was an almost mystic force. What Toscanini was to conducting, she was to singing. I admired her for the simplicity of her approach to singing. Like me, she sang from the heart or not at all. She was also an extraordinarily supportive and generous colleague.’^[23]

During the seventies, she had almost confined herself to recitals, where she felt more fulfilled with the audience response.^[24]  As an encore, it was noted that; ’Even then there could be another treat in store, for sometimes instead of bringing Gerald Moore back with her, she would return alone but with guitar. ‘Adios Granada’ she would sing: the bold projected middle voice would fill the hall, the sensuous melisma told of dark faces and flickering shadows in a sunny land,…’^[25]  She performed the Catalan folk-song, ‘Song of the Birds’, for the closing ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and her last concert tour was to Australia in 1995.^[26] Victoria de los Angeles died in home town of Barcelona on the 15 January 2005.^[27]