Victòria dels Àngels (Barcelona 1923-2005) was a Spanish
singer who highlighted as a lyric and opera soprano. She was born Victoria de los Ángeles López García and
lived her childhood and youth in the porter’s lodge of the University of
Barcelona where her father was a caretaker.
She always admitted her humble origins despite her success
in her professional carreer. She was a model of an anti-diva.
Victoria studied at Barcelona Conservatory. In 1941,
while she was still a student, she made her operatic debut at the Liceu, as Mimí,
in La Bohème but it was in 1945 when she returned to the Liceu to make her
professional debut as the Countess in “The marriage of Figaro”. After winning first prize in the Geneva International
Competition 1947, she sang “Salud” in Falla’s La vida Breve in 1948.
She played around the world. In 1949 she made her first
apparance at the Paris Opera as “Marguerite” (Fausto) and, a year after, she made her debut in Salzburg and, after that, at The Royal Opera House (London), Carnegie Hall,
Metropolitan Opera (New York), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), La Scala (Milán),
Viena State Opera, etc. In 1961, Victoria de los Ángeles became the first Spanish
singer who had performed at the Bayreuth Festival, as “Elisabeth” in Tannaüser.
Her farewell to opera was at the theater La Zarzuela,
in Madrid in 1982, but in 1992 she sang at the Barcelona Olympic Games. Her last concert was at the National Theater of Catalonia,
in Barcelona in 1997.
Once again, the Hospital of Sant Pau is hosting the
“Victoria de los Ángeles Lied Festival”, from 20 to 29 november 2015.
Her life can be included in her sentence “I’m just someone
singing and I would like to be remembered well”.
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