Victoria de Los Angeles (1923 - 2005)

Note by Alan Bilgora











"As an interpreter of Scarpia he is an expert. He understands the cruel police chief with his suave, smiling surface. He plays him for all he is worth, and he is a good enough musician to give point and emphasis to the musical aspects of the powerful role."

It is generally accepted that Victoria de Los Angeles possessed one of the most beautiful soprano voices of the 20th Century. Her musicality was supported by a vocal timbre suffused with the bright warmth of an Iberian summer. Her appearances in the concert hall and opera house, and her first recordings, drew the highest accolades from the musical establishment, critics and public. Her personality, excellent technique and dedicated approach would have secured her place as a great singer in any age. Her adoring public were fortunate to hear her in a long and outstanding career which covered a wide range of operatic roles, and included many concerts, lieder recitals and the stylish interpretation of French mélodie. In Spanish song she was surely the paramount interpreter of her generation, and like her predecessor, the much lamented Conchita Supervia (1895 - 1936), she has left a legacy of recordings that will be treasured by all devotees of recorded vocal art.

Victoria Gómez Cima was born in Barcelona on 1 November 1923, the second of three children. Her parents Bernardo López and Victoria García, her sister Carmen and later her brother José lived in an apartment at the University where her father was caretaker. She was named ‘Victoria’ after her mother, ‘de Los Angeles’ after her mother’s brother Angel and ‘López García’ in order that all the family could be represented. She was a weak child, rather thin, and a little over-protected, which no doubt encouraged a shy and retiring nature. She played the guitar and learned to play the piano. As her voice matured she would sing for guests of her father’s at every opportunity. She was heard by a member of the university staff and asked to appear at a Red Cross Concert for victims of the Civil War. She became very popular locally and was in constant demand. Bernardo wanted her to become a doctor, but her sister had other ideas; she tried (unsuccessfully) to get the 14-year-old Victoria a place at the Barcelona Conservatorio.

In August 1939, and now approaching her 16th birthday, Victoria auditioned for the Conservatorio’s principal singing teacher, mezzo-soprano Dolores Frau. Madame Frau dashed from the room, returning with the director and stating that the girl could be another Rosina Storchio (1876-1945, creator of Butterfly) or even a Claudia Muzio (1889- 1936), two of the greatest ‘prima donnas’ of the previous generation. Victoria embarked on a six-year course of study - and completed it in three. She studied Sol-Fa with Professor Antonio Bosom and guitar with Teresa Garcia and Graciano Tarragó, the mother of Renata, who later accompanied Victoria in recital. It was also quite usual for Victoria to accompany her own encores!

Madame Frau looked after her vocal studies and made sure she had enough food to build up the health and stamina necessary for any singer. In February 1940 Victoria López García was entered, under the name of Victoria de Los Angeles, for the Radio Barcelona Competition sponsored by a famous brand of cognac, Los Tres Cosacos. During the semifinals it came out that she was only 16 (a year under the minimum age) but the rules were changed and Victoria emerged the winner. Good fortune prevailed when she attracted the attention of José Maria Lamaña, a wealthy engineer with a passion for music. She sang with his group Ars Musicae and these appearances honed her musicality and widened her repertoire. In his spare time the enthusiastic Lamaña managed her affairs. Victoria was engaged to Enrique Magriña in 1943 but they did not marry until 1948. After that it was Magriña who took over as manager. In 1944 Lamaña arranged for some test recordings at HMV, hoping that they would be heard by head office in London. On 13 January 1945 Victoriamade her operatic debut at the Liceo as the Countess in LeNozzedi Figaro and later appeared in Manon, La Bohème and Faust. For the next four years she was principal soprano at the Liceo. The roles of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Elsa in Lohengrin were added to her repertoire, and she appeared in a triple bill of Monteverdi’s Combattimento, Wolf- Ferrari’s Segreto di Susanna and Pergolesi’s Serva Padrona - all sung in a single evening. These three operas also served for her Lisbon debut at Teatro de São Carlos on 3 November 1945. She gave recitals in Madrid in 1945, ‘46 and ’47 and made her operatic debut there as Mimì in La Bohème. Alongside Beniamino Gigli, at that time the most famous Italian tenor in the world, she also sang the heroine in Massenet’s Manon. There was a Spanish tour with the young Giuseppe Di Stefano and in 1947 Lamaña entered her for a singing competition in Geneva. She won the first prize and after the winners concert (which was broadcast) found herself the ‘talk of the town’. Even La Scala, Milan tried to engage her, an invitation which she very sensibly declined, knowing herself to be still too inexperienced for that great house.

Her first professional engagement in London came when she was asked to sing in two live broadcast performances ofManuel de Falla’s LaVida Brevewith Flora Nielsen and Richard Lewis, and also a recital of Spanish songs accompanied by Renata Tarragó. The opera performances caused a sensation, and that sternest of critics Ernest Newman wrote, "The Salud, Victoria de Los Angeles, whomI cannot remember having heardbefore, is evidently a singer of unusual distinction: and she was the only one who knew how the "oriental" turns in Spanish melody should be sung. I listened to her in a recital of Spanish folk songs andwas again struck by the beauty of her voice and the genuine musical quality of her singing." David Bicknell, then head of HMV’s (EMI) classical division, quickly signed her to a contract. She was asked to audition for Covent Garden and, although she sang well, was told she would be hearing from them in due course. That year she also undertook a Scandinavian tour and on 9 April 1949 made her Paris Opéra debut asMarguerite in Gounod’s Faust. Evidently sitting in the audience and making notes was the newly appointed Manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Following a session at the HMV recording studios inAbbey Road she went on a South American tour, stopping off in New York, where the great impresario Sol Hurok arranged a recital at Carnegie Hall. The audience included Arthur Rubinstein, MarianAnderson, Isaac Stern and many other famous performers who came to hear in the flesh the voice they had so far heard only on disc. The concert was an enormous success and was followed immediately by two more ‘sold-out’ recitals.

On 27 May 1950 Victoria finally made her La Scala debut as the eponymous heroine in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, with Alda Noni singing Zerbinetta and Gino Penno as Bacchus. Later roles at La Scala included Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in a cast that could boast Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Donna Elvira, Sesto Bruscantini as Masetto, Giacinto Prandelli as Don Ottavio, Alda Noni as Zerlina, Mario Petri as the Don and Giuseppe Taddei as Leporello. It was here that she had an infamous difference of opinion with Herbert von Karajan about not rehearsing in full voice. Whether by choice, or coincidence, they never appeared together again.

Earlier in 1950 Victoria had made her Covent Garden debut as Mimì in La Bohème. In his biography the British principal bass David Franklin relates an amusing anecdote, which gives one an idea how she affected her colleagues as well as audiences: he recalls being called to a rehearsal with a new soprano. "... she was Spanish, we heard, and had done a good audition. We met her, good looking we thought, a little plump perhaps ... though not for a soprano ... quiet and retiring. For the first two acts we ‘marked’ it, singing in half voice, dropping down an octave from top notes, or singing them falsetto. We had no idea what she was like ... she was ‘marking’ too ... we broke for coffee, and they began the Act III quartet. Geraint Evans, who was singing Schaunard, and I sat reading the paper. Rodolfo was Rudi Schock (Germany’s premier lyric tenor then), Musetta was Ljuba Welitsch, (one of the world’s leading prima donnas) and Marcello was Paolo Silveri (baritone star of the San Carlo and La Scala opera). With the new girl, they were cruising gently along, workmen doing a chore. Suddenly something happened. The new soprano let out her full voice. It was like cream, smooth and exciting, remarkable in quality and size, effortless in production, with easy, balanced flexibility, and a long range crowned by thrilling top notes. Geraint and I dropped our papers and sat gaping at this phenomenon. Schock, Welitsch and Silveri were astonished, and, I thought, a little alarmed. This girl was something to be reckoned with. Schock took off his coat, Silveri loosened his collar, Welitsch cleared her throat, and all four of them cut loose in one of the most exciting performances of the quartet ... even with a battered old upright piano ... that I have ever heard. The new girl’s name by the way was Victoria de Los Angeles, and one of the things I most enjoyed in my singing days was being in the cast of her English début." Following the first performance the critic in The Times, after commenting on some first night nerves wrote "It is rare to discover such maturity of tone in one so young ... it soon became evident that she was singer of the front rank with plentiful reserves of tone as well as tenderness and phrasing that was a delight in its effortless shapeliness." In the Sunday Times Ernest Newman was quick to remind readers of his comments following the broadcast of La Vida Breve. He wrote, "She fully confirmed our first impression of her as an artist quite out of the common. The possessor of a beautiful voice, powerful and delicate by turns, a mistress of all the arts of tonal shading, one who has not merely studied singing but is a singer born, and to top it all, a musician who can satisfy the critical listener’s most exigent demands in the matter of style, phrasing and so on". Two days later she made her Wigmore Hall recital debut, which again was greeted with outstanding reviews. She then travelled to the Edinburgh Festival for recitals and met Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953), whom she greatly admired and befriended.

On 17 March 1951 Victoria made her Metropolitan debut as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust in the company of Jerome Hines as Mephistopheles, the Faust of Eugene Conley and the Marthe of Thelma Votipka. That doyen of American critics Virgil Thomson of the New York Herald Tribune, after remarking on the pleasurable sounds of these singers and after extolling to ‘the skies’ every facet of Victoria’s voice and technique in his extraordinarily long and very detailed review, concluded: "What can be determined now, what has already been decided by European audiences, is that she is a vocal artist out of the ordinary and far above it. Her performance as Marguerite in Faust revealed further to this observer that her unusual musical gifts are accompanied by a stage presence of no minor impact ... She is professional and first class all the time. Last night she made everybody else on the stage seem, both musically and dramatically, a little amateurish." Over the next decade she made 103 appearances with the Company in New York and a further 36 on tour singing Mimì in La Bohème, the Countess in Nozze di Figaro, Manon, Micaëla in Carmen, Eva in Die Meistersinger, Mélisande, Rosina, Violetta, Desdemona, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Harriet in Flotow’s Martha. Her distinguished tenor colleagues in many performances included Giuseppe di Stefano, Jussi Björling, Mario Del Monaco, Hans Hopf, Cesare Valletti, Giuseppe Campora, Daniele Barioni and Richard Tucker. Still socially shy and retiring, she made few friends during her time in New York, apart from Marian Anderson, with whom she used to talk ‘shop’. Unfortunately she had an altercation with Rudolf Bing about performances ofMartha, an opera she did not like, and walked out of the Metropolitan, never to return.

Victoria recorded Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Bechi and Monti, in 1952, Suor Angelica and Pagliacci in 1954, the latter with Björling and Warren. She also made a complete recording that year in Barcelona of La Vida Breve with the veteran tenor Pablo Civil as Paco and in Paris recorded Faust with Nicolai Gedda and Boris Christoff. In 1955 she was heard in recital at the Teatro Solis in Montevideo and then flew to Rome to record Madama Butterfly for the first time, with Di Stefano and Gobbi. She was busy in the Paris studio during 1956 with Manon and, what is still considered the definitive version of, La Bohème with Jussi Björling, Robert Merrill and Lucine Amara.

Victoria undertook her first Violetta in La Traviata on 2 November 1957 at the Metropolitan with Daniele Barioni as Alfredo and Leonard Warren as Germont Père. In the same year she recorded Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1958 she recorded Simone Boccanegra with Gobbi, Christoff and Campora and in 1959 both Gianni Schicchi with Gobbi and a second Faust with Nicolai Gedda and Boris Christoff. In spite of her busy schedule during 1960 she managed to fit in recordings of Carmen with Gedda, La Traviata with Carlo del Monte and Mario Sereni and Madama Butterfly with Jussi Björling. In 1961 at a Covent Garden Gala before Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, she sang the double-bill of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and Nedda in Pagliacci. In the November of that year she sang in Barcelona at the posthumous première of Falla’s Atlantida. As she had always been given to understand that she would never have any children, all these engagements were undertaken whilst she was very happily and unexpectedly pregnant, but a tragic miscarriage once again dashed her hopes for a family. In 1961 she made her debut in San Francisco, singing in Otello, with James McCracken in the title role and Tito Gobbi as Iago. The same season also saw her appearing in Don Giovanni with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Giorgio Tozzi, Geraint Evans and Richard Lewis. In 1962, at the request of Wieland Wagner, she went to Bayreuth to sing in Tannhäuser together with Grace Bumbry,Wolfgang Windgassen and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She enjoyed the extended stay and rehearsal period and was a great success. Immediately afterwards she flew to Buenos Aires, where, at the Colón, she sang Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Early in 1963 she recorded Cavalleria Rusticana with Franco Corelli and Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Sesto Bruscantini and Luigi Alva. Once again she became pregnant, and this time with a happy outcome. Her first son Juan Enrique was born on 1 August 1963. Victoria recovered quickly and was back in Buenos Aires in September 1964 singing the Countess inNozze di Figaro. In 1965 she gave her first recital in Vienna, toured France and Germany and sang in a production of Faust in Geneva. She recorded The Tales of Hoffmann with Gedda, D’Angelo and Schwarzkopf and a recital disc with Gerald Moore. She then flew to Japan for the Osaka Festival, presenting recitals there and in Tokyo.

She returned to Spain for only a short time before setting off again for a concert tour of the Antipodes and on her return made plans for a recital and concert tour of Scandinavia, Belgium, France and Switzerland, ending with a concert at the Royal Festival Hall before Queen Elizabeth. In 1965 she committed to disc a second version of Falla’s La Vida Breve and also Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Over the next couple of years, and after a long hiatus, she made a welcome return to the Teatro Liceo in Barcelona. She sang in Manon and appeared as Desdemona in Otello with Jon Vickers singing the title role. She was at the Dallas Opera when she learned that she was expecting her second child, Alejandro, who was delivered safely but subsequently found to be autistic. In 1967 Gerald Moore, who had accompanied so many outstanding singers in his long career, decided to retire. In a Festival Hall tribute concert, she and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sang the ‘Cat’s duet’ - a piece of musical nonsense - which became a minor hit pop-record. In 1969 she sang Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther in Madrid and recorded the role in 1970 with Gedda and Mesplé.

By the early 70s Victoria felt that the demands of operatic performance were incompatible with her family responsibilities. She continued to give recitals and concerts and toured the Soviet Union, Hungary, Italy, Spain, France, Great Britain, Central and South America and Scandinavia. In April 1973 she sang Salud in La Vida Breve for the last time in concert at the Albert Hall. In 1978 she was at last given the opportunity of playing Carmen on stage at the Newark Festival in the USA, and having lost a great deal of weight, the now svelte Victoria was thought to be a radiant, unforgettable heroine. A year later, on 14 October 1979, she performed the role again, making her debut with the New York City Opera. Her Don José was the young tenor Ricardo Calleo, also making his house debut.

By 1980 the awards were coming thick and fast: at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre the actress Glenda Jackson presented Victoria with a golden disc to mark 30 years’ exclusivity with HMV and its associated ‘Angel’ label; she received the Edison Award; six Grand Prix du Disque; the Cross of Lazo de Dama of the Order of Isabel; and the (gloriously named) Condecoración Banda de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X. As late as 1992 de Los Angeles was still performing; closing the Barcelona Olympics with a farewell aria, and the following year at the Wigmore Hall, when she was robbed of 10 million lire (approx £4,500) and £250,000 worth of jewellery. She lived the last few years of her life quietly, having outlived both her husband and her ailing son. There was a little teaching of specially selected and highly talented pupils. Although she never made any feature films, her personal charm and art can still be seen in recitals she recorded for television. Victoria de Los Angeles was one of those rare artists who not only evoked respect and admiration for their talent but also engendered love. She died on 15 January 2005.

THE RECORDINGS:

Victoria de Los Angeles’s recording career covered 30 years. Her earliest commercial recordings were issued on 78rpm discs between 1948-54. In the LP era she recorded numerous recital discs and complete operas, the last being in 1978. This Prima Voce disc is a transfer of recordings made in the 50s which show her voice in all its pristine, youthful and exuberant freshness.

In Falla’s Canciones Populares Españolas (Seven Popular Spanish songs) she demonstrates a perfect control over style, dynamics and emotion. Although not possessing the highly individual ‘earthy’ quality that marked Conchita Supervia’s versions, they do justice to the refined classical vein in which the composer set the music. Likewise in Colección de Tonadillas by Granados, her natural reserve is balanced with charm and the understanding of a native Spaniard for her language. Each song has a particular mood, which is well expressed and carefully delineated. Lively rhythms alternate with reflective melody and each one is given due attention. Both these sets of songs are accompanied by Gerald Moore, who for many years was her accompanist on record and in recital. The Traditional songs of Spain were arranged by Graciana Tarragó and are accompanied by her daughter Renata. They have an intimacy, coupled with a strong Andalusian flavour, which evokes a mental image of each area from which the basic folk melodies were taken. Sung in impeccable style they have remained a firm favourite of collectors of Spanish song and are perfect examples of Victoria de Los Angeles’s voice at the outset of what was to prove a wonderful career.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Metropolitan Opera Annals (W.H. Wilson Co., New York, 1957-68)
Il Teatro alla Scala (G.Ricordi, Milan, 1964)
David Franklin: BassoCantante (Duckworth, London, 1969)
Arthur Bloomfield: 50 Years of the San FranciscoOpera (San Francisco Book Co., 1972)
Peter Roberts: Victoria de Los Angeles (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1982)
Paul Jackson: Sign-off for theOldMet (Duckworth, London, 1997)
O Teatro de S.Carlos (Mario Moreau e Hugin Editores. Lds, Lisbon, 1999)
Teatro Solis Montevideo (Salgado Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, 2003)
K. Wlaschin: Opera on film (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004)


Prima Voce recommends the following website for songs texts and translations: The Lied and Art Song Page

Synopses of the TRADITIONAL SONGS OF SPAIN

El Rossinyol - "Nightingale, in your flight tell my mother that a shepherd is my lover"
El Testament d’Amelia - Amelia, daughter of the king, is dying, poisoned by her stepmother. In her bitter testament she leaves her husband to the stepmother who was his lover
Adiós meu homiño! Adiós (Goodbye, my dearest, goodbye) - "Now you are going to the war, do not forget the little treasure you leave behind"
Miña nay por me casare - "My mother wanted me to wed, and asked my father for a dowry. They had a quarrel over this, and broke the pots and crockery"
Tengo que subir, subir - "I must go to the mountains, my love is there"
Ahí tienes mi corazón - "Here is my heart, it is without grief, without joy. What lying in your eyes! What deceit on your lips!"
La ví llorando - The girl sings of her sadness at the departure and absence of her lover.
Ya se van los Pastores - The shepherds are going to Extremandura. The girls are left behind, weeping. The mountains are silent and sad
Campanas de Belén - A Christmas Carol
Jaeneras - "In Jaén I was born, and in Jaén I want to die, close to the Lord who watches over me"
A dormir ahora mesmo - A cradle song
Granadinas - "If you want to know couplets, come to my heart, for all my thoughts are poems"
Hincarse de rodillas - "Oh, my Lord is coming now, Mother of my soul, Kneel down!"
Canción de trilla - "I would that love’s dart smite you deeply"
Parado de Valldemosa - "The girls do not like me because I snatch the trimmings from their petticoats"
Nik Baditut - "In the fields I have flocks of sheep with their shepherds. On the sea I have ten ships with their sailors. In Catalonia I have ten mules laden with silver coins"
Andregaya - "The village clockmarks midnight, but a young maid is alone at the window, sad as night, unable to sleep"


© 2007, Alan Bilgora

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