Victoria de los Angeles - Canta: Las mas famosas arias de opera (1998)

Victoria de los Angeles was one of the finest lyric sopranos in the decades after World War II. She was born Victoria Gómez Cima. She learned to sing and play piano and guitar while still in school. She entered the Conservatorio de Liceo in Barcelona to study piano and singing, completing the six-year program in three, and graduating with full honors at the age of 18. Her membership in the Conservatory's Ars Musicae gave her wide exposure to the art song repertory and Baroque and Renaissance music.
De los Angeles debuted in a song recital at the Palau de la Música Catalana. Her operatic debut was also in Barcelona, at the Gran Teatro del Liceo, singing the Countess in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
Her national and international breakthroughs occurred after she won the Geneva International Singing Competition in 1947. She was immediately booked for performances in Madrid, singing in Manon and La Bohème opposite Beniamino Gigli before returning to Barcelona. There she moved into Germanic roles, adding Freischütz, Lohengrin, and Tannhäuser to her portrayals. The Geneva Competition had also brought her to the attention of the BBC, which brought her to London to sing the part of Salud in Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve in 1948, when she signed an exclusive contract with EMI. This association lasted 30 years and included at least 21 full-length opera recordings, 25 solo recitals, and appearances on 40 other EMI releases.
Her first Paris appearance was in 1949, as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, a role she repeated as her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1951. She debuted in Covent Garden in 1950, once again singing Mimì in La Bohème, which was one of the roles most closely associated with her. She sang regularly at both the Met and Covent Garden. Wieland Wagner asked her to sing in a new production of Tannhäuser opening the Bayreuth Festival for 1961.
She sang in most of the major houses of the world, touring in South Africa, the Middle East, Australia, East Asia, and Latin America (where she was a frequent guest artist at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires). She performed with such great conductors as Thomas Beecham, Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Pierre Monteux, Carlo Maria Giulini, Charles Münch, Zubin Mehta, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.
She had a wide vocal and dramatic range, singing in operas as diverse as Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Acis and Galatea, Pelléas et Mélisande, Die Meistersinger, Simon Boccanegra, Dido and Aeneas, La Traviata, and Madama Butterfly. In one evening, she sang both the roles of Nedda in I pagliacci and Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. As a recitalist, her vast and wide repertory embraced not only the central German and French Romantic and 20th century eras, but had a strong representation of early music. In addition, she often added Spanish and Catalan folk songs to her solo recitals.
Besides having a lovely, warm, and dark tone, she was always noted for the intelligence of her portrayals and musical choices. She closely monitored her own singing. She retired from the operatic stage in 1969, after an exceptionally successful portrayal of Verdi's Desdemona in Dallas, though she returned to Covent Garden as Carmen in 1978.
However, she continued singing recitals. As time passed, she lowered the number of her appearances, yet reviews continued to stress the purity of her voice. She was heard to say that the moment she heard a wobble in her voice she would "shut up the shop." One of her last appearances was in connection with the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, where she still exhibited characteristic vocal purity.

Track List:

CD 1:
Giacomo Puccini
1. GIANNI SCHICCHI: O mio babbino caro
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Gabriele Santini (p) 1959
Giuseppe Verdi
2. LA TRAVIATA: Ah, fors'e lui… Sempre libera Carlo del Monte, tenor
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Tullio Serafín (p) 1960
Alfredo Catalani
3. LA WALLY: Ebben? ne andró lontana
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Giuseppe Morelli (P) 1955
Georges Bizet
4. CARMEN: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera)
5. CARMEN: Chanson bohème
Denise Monteil y Marcelle Croisier, sopranos
Coro y Orquesta de la O.R.T.F. / Sir Thomas Beecham (P) i960
Arrigo Boito
6. MEFISTOFELE: L'altra notte in fondo al mare
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Giuseppe Morelli (P) 1955
Jules Massenet
7. MANON: Je marche sur tous les chemins
8. MANON: Gavotte
Coro y Orquesta de la Opera Còmica de Paris / Pierre Monteux (P) 1955
Pietro Mascagni
9. CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA: Voi lo sapete, o mamma Corinna Vozza, mezzosoprano
Orquesta do la Opera de Roma / Grabriele Santini (p) 1963
Giuseppe Verdi
10. OTELLO: Piangea cantando (Canción del sauce)
11. OTELLO: Ave Maria Gianella Borelli. mezzosoprano
12. ERNANI: Surta é la notte… Emani, Emani, involami
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Giuseppe Morelli (p) 1955
Giacomo Puccini
13. SUOR ANGELICA: Senza mamma… Sorella. 0 buona sorella Lidia Marimpietri. soprano
Coro y Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Tullio Serafín (p) 1958


CD 2:
Gioacchino Rossini
1. EL BARBERO DE SEVILLA: Una voce poco fa
Orquesta Sinfónica de Milán / Tullio Serafín (p) 1953
Giacomo Puccini
2. LA BOHEME: Si, mi chiamano Mimi
3. LA BOHEME: Donde lieta usci
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Giuseppe Morelli (p) 1955
4. MADAMA BUTTERFLY: Un bel di vedremo
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Gianandrea Gavazzeni (p) 1955
Gioacchino Rossini
5. LA CENERENTOLA: Nacqui all'affano
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Giuseppe Morelli (p) 1955
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
6. I PAGLIACCI: Qual fiamma avea nel guardo
Orquesta RCA Victor / Renato Cellini (p) 1953
Giuseppe Verdi
7. SIMON BOCCANEGRA: Come in quest'ora bruna
Orquesta de la Opera de Roma / Gabriele Santini (p) 1958
Charles Gounod
8. FAUSTO: O Dieu! que de bijoux… Ah! Je ris (Aria de las joyas)
Orquesta de la Opera de Paris / André Cluytens (P) 1959
Jules Massenet
9. WERTHER: Va! laisse couler mes larmes (Aria de las lágrimas)
Orquesta de París / Georges Pretre (p) 1969
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
10. LAS BODAS DE FIGARO: Porgi amor
Orquesta Philharmonia / Walter Susskind (P) 1950
Richard Wagner
11. TANNHAUSER: Dich teure Halle
12. LOHENGRIN: Einsam in trüben Tagen
Orquesta Philharmonia / Anatole Fistoulari (p) 1950
Henry Purcell
13. DIDO Y ENEAS: Thy hand Belinda… (Muerte de Dido) Ambrosi an Singers
English Chamber Orchestra / Sir John Barbimi» (P) 1966