The Catalan singer Victoria de los Ángeles (November 1, 1923 – January 15, 2005) was a well-known soprano whose career spanned the early 1940s to the mid 1970s. She began as an opera singer but turned increasingly to lieder in her later years, in particular Spanish and French songs.
De los Angeles was born Victoria Gómez Cima into a poor Catalan family in Barcelona. She studied as the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating in just three years in 1941 at age 18. That year, she made her operatic debut as Mimi a the Liceu, but then resumed her musical studies.
De los Angeles as Cio-Cio-San
in Madame Butterfly
In 1945, de los Angeles returned to the Liceu to make her professional debut as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro in Barcelona. After winning first prize in the Geneva International Competition in 1947, she sang Salud in Falla's La Vida Breve with the BBC in London in 1948.
In 1949 she made her first appearance in a the Paris Opčra as Marguerite. In 1950, she made her debut at Salzburg and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Mimi, and she continued to appear there regularly until 1961. She also sang at Milan's La Scala from 1950 to 1956.
In October 1950, de los Angeles made her American debut with a recital at Carnegie Hall. The following March, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Marguerite, and sang with the company until 1961. In 1957 she sang at the Vienna State Opera.
After making her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elisabeth in 1961, 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 subsequent twenty years.
Though Carmen lay comfortably in her range (she was perhaps a natural mezzo-ssoprano), she nevertheless sang the major soprano roles. Along with Montserrat Caballé, she was a true exponent of bel-canto singing. De los Angeles performed regularly in song recitals with singers Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons .
Among her best known operatic roles were Donna Anna, Rosina, Manon, Nedda, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Violetta, and Mélisande.
In 2005, de los Angeles died at Barcelona at age 81. Those close to her said her voice was still beautiful to the end.
De Los Angeles married Enrique Magrińá in 1948 and had two sons, one of which survived her.
External links
- Unofficial Victoria de los Angeles website http://users.wcnet.net/victoria/Default.htm
- The Times (London) obituary http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1443665,00.html
