The Fabulous Victoria De Los Angeles

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The word "fabulous" seems vulgar when applied to the Spanish diva whose delicately shaded voice encompassed music from the middle ages to the present. This four-disc compilation emphasizes her song repertoire, to which she brought warmth, intelligence, linguistic integrity and irresistible sincerity. Her dignity makes listeners want to come to her, and she rewards them with an intimate, personal experience, especially in this small-scale repertoire by Ravel, Debussy, Duparc, Fauré, lots of Spanish composers and German masters such as Schubert and Brahms. --David Patrick Stearns

Tracks:

Sheherazade: Asie
Sheherazade: La Flute enchantee
Sheherazade: L'Indifferent
Cinq Melodies populaires grecques: Le Reveil de la mariee
Cinq Melodies populaires grecques: La-bas vers l'eglise
Cinq Melodies populaires grecques: Quel galant m'est comparable
Cinq Melodies populaires grecques: Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques
Cinq Melodies populaires grecques: Tout gai!
Duex Melodies hebraiques: Kaddisch
Duex Melodies hebraiques: L'Enigme eternelle
L'Invitaiton au voyage
Phidyle
L'Enfant Prodigue: Recit. & Air de Lia: L'annee en vain chasse l'annee
Poeme de l'amour et de la mer: La Fleur des eaux
Poeme de l'amour et de la mer: Interlude
Poeme de l'amour et de la mer: La Mort de l'amour

Tracks:

Cinco Canciones Negras: Cuba dentro de un piano
Cinco Canciones Negras: Punto de habanera
Cinco Canciones Negras: Chevere
Cinco Canciones Negras: Cancion de cuna para dormir a un negrito
Cinco Canciones Negras: Canto negro
Coleccion de canciones amatorias: Llorad corazon
Coleccion de canciones amatorias: Iban al pinar
Cuatro madrigales amatorios: Con que la lavare?
Cuatro madrigales amatorios: Vos me matasteis
Cuatro madrigales amatorios: De donde venis, amore?
Cuatro madrigales amatorios: De los alamos vengo, madre
Cinco canciones playeras espanolas: Rutas
Cinco canciones playeras espanolas: Pregon
Cinco canciones playeras espanolas: Las 12
Cinco canciones playeras espanolas: El pescador sin dinero
Cinco canciones playeras espanolas: Coplilla
Quatre cancons: Canco de grumet
Quatre cancons: Cancon incerta
Quatre cancons: Maig
Quatre cancons: Anacreontica
La Dama d'Arago
El can dels ocells
Canco de Sega
El combat del somni: Damunt de tu nomes les flors
El combat del somni: Aquesta nit un mateix vent
El combat del somni: Jo et presentia com la mar
Triptic de Mossen Cinto: L'Harpa Sagrada
Triptic de Mossen Cinto: Lo violi de Sant Francesh
Triptic de Mossen Cinto: Sant Fransech i la cigala

Tracks:

Chansons de Bilitis: La Flute de Pan
Chansons de Bilitis: La Chevelure
Chansons de Bilitis: Le Tombeau des Naiades
Fetes galantes: En sourdine
Fetes galantes: Fantoches
Fetes galantes: Clair de lune
Noel de enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons
Chants populaires: Chanson espagnole
Chants populaires: Chanson francaise
Chants populaires: Chanson italienne
Chants populaires: Chanson Herbraique
Trois jours de vendange
Le Rossignol des lilas
Tristesse, Op. 6, No. 2
Au bord de l'eau, Op. 8, No. 1
Les Roses d'Ispahan, Op. 39, No. 4
Troujours (No. 2 de Trois Poemes d'un jour, Op. 21)
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: El pano murano
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Sequidilla murciana
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Asturiana
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Jota
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Nana
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Cancion
Siete Canciones populares espanolas: Polo
Doce canciones gallegas: As florinas dos toxos
Triptico, Op. 45: Farruca
Villancicos: Pastorcito santo
Psyche
Soneto a Cordoba

Tracks:

Proserpina: E dove t'aggiri
Le violette
Joshua: Oh! had I Jubal's lyre
Der Tod und das Madchen, D. 531
Die schone Mullerin, D. 795: No. 2: Wohin?
D. 547: An die Musik
Op. 59, No. 8: Dein blaues Auge
Op. 84, No. 4: Vergebliches Standchen
Op. 27, No. 1: Chanson d'amour
Op. 46, No. 2: Clair de lune
Let Us Wander
Lost Is My Quiet
Schlaf in deiner engen Kammer
Ah! lamenta, oh bella Irene
Irish Songs: Oh! Would I Were But That Sweet Linnet
Irish Songs: He Promised Me At Parting
Irish Songs: They Bid Me Slight My Dermot Dear
Welsh songs: The Dream
Mignon und der Harfner, D. 877: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
Les Fleurs des landes: Le Trebuchet
Moglichkeit
Der Apfel
Schottische Ballade
Pastorale
Pleurs d'or
Sapphische Ode
La Partenza

Amazon.com

The word "fabulous" seems vulgar when applied to the Spanish diva whose delicately shaded voice encompassed music from the middle ages to the present. This four-disc compilation emphasizes her song repertoire, to which she brought warmth, intelligence, linguistic integrity and irresistible sincerity. Her dignity makes listeners want to come to her, and she rewards them with an intimate, personal experience, especially in this small-scale repertoire by Ravel, Debussy, Duparc, Fauré, lots of Spanish composers and German masters such as Schubert and Brahms. --David Patrick Stearns

Customer Reviews:

Awesome musicality.......2006-07-26

This 4-CD set is a tribute to the concert career of the great Victoria de Los Angeles. The first 3 CDs show her totally at home in the art song of France and of her native Spain. In the French art songs, her silvery, creamy tone, her legendary legato and her perfect French diction make for wonderful and unforgettable performances. These include a sensual Scheherazade, magnificient singing in the Duparc songs and a phenomenal Poeme de L'amour et de la mer of Chausson (try to keep your eyes dry by the end of La mort de l'amour). In the Chausson, while de Los Angeles does not opt for the intensely Wagnerian approach, her sensitive singing more than does justice to the poetry and the feelings of the character. The Spanish songs showcase de Los Angeles at her most natural, flamboyant and attractive singing. The tunes are catchy, full of bouncy rhythms and De Los Angeles's fabulous voice never ceases to amaze. The 4th CD shows the wonderful chemistry between de Los angeles and the great Gerald Moore. While she does not erase memories of Fischer-Dieskau and Schwarzkopf in the Schubert selections, the Brahms songs are excellent and her Faure songs here are earth shaking in their elegance and refinement. The Italian and the famous Handel aria helps to prove De Los Angeles's reputation as an excellent bel canto singer. Her duets with Fischer-Dieskau are absolutely memorable and gorgeous.
The set comes with booklet including full words plus translations, helpful notes on De Los Angeles's concert career and a dozen of beautiful and rare black and white photos. Victoria de Los Angeles's concert career was as prolific as her legendary operatic performances and continued well after her retirement from the operatic stage. This introspective and almost encycopledic release is a real treat and is absolutely recommended. I totally agree with the editor's review who states that the word "fabulous" fails in every respect to fully capture the artistry of the Spanish soprano. Victoria de Los Angeles is definitely one of the most wonderful lyric sopranos of the 20th century and is one of the most heavenly artists to have ever graced the concert scene. A must-have for any collection.

Fabulous? Yes!!!.......1999-09-13

The album is a marvelous sampling of this great singer's artistry. Her performances of the French and Spanish composers are something special. The De Falla "Seven Popular Folksongs" are powerful, passionate; the last song, "Jota," raised the hair on the back of my neck.

I was delighted to see Faure's "Claire de lune" on the album, and equally delighted with De Los Angeles' elegant rendition of this work. The only recording of the song I've liked better is from an LP featuring Frederika Von Stade.

Customer Reviews:

In Memory Of A Great Soprano: A Tribute Album.......2005-02-01

Victoria De Los Angeles has died but not her legacy. She left behind numerous recordings and film footage that showcase her superb operatic voice. This album, along with "The Very Best Of" are perfect tributes to her artistry. She was a warm, vibrant and sweet sonbird of opera. Never a diva with an unpleasant or arrogant attitude (like ahem M. Callas or K. Battle most recently) she once accompanied herself with a guitar at a recital. Trained as a Spanish Zarzuela and ballad singer, she became a great figure in the Lieder and Art Song scene. She championed the works of many obscure but brilliant song composers. This album more than others provides us with a look at these awesome composers who are unfortunately very little known today. Victoria De Los Angeles, despite her big physical presence, possessed a light, lyric voice. She was mostly a full lyric soprano with some spinto. Her greatest role is said to be Puccini's Mimi in La Boheme. She excelled in the role of Violetta of Verdi's Traviata purely for the voice of the character. She must have made a sensational Magda in Puccini's Rondine, as well as a dazzling Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. She was also in a very celebrated performance of Tales Of Hoffman opposite Nicolai Gedda. I believe De Los Angeles either sang Olympia or Antonia. Her Antonia was particularily impressive. She had such an unassuming and winning personality. The ability to touch an audience, relate to them or communicate to them is a very rare and special gift few sopranos have. Some sopranos, goddesses of opera, have remained mysterious, distant and aloof and even cold to the audience. It was definately like that in olden days of opera- 17th-19th century. Maria Callas, despite her strong following, was always a figure of distant mystery and myth. Kathleen Battle was a temperamental diva who didn't get along with her cast and co-workers and Birgit Nilsson is said to have been a bit frigid herself. But Victoria De Los Angeles won her audiences by touching them directly somehow. She was like Beverly Sills in this manner. She was also like Teresa Berganza in this way as well. Spain has produced a number of outstanding figures in opera- tenor Placido Domingo, baritone Justino Diaz, tenor Jose Carreras, Jose Cura, the forementioned mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza and even Montserrat Caballe, though she was Catalan and not exactly Spanish but still...Spanish in a way.
I was never able to see her on stage. She was before my time but I have become familiar with her voice and performances through albums. I hope her death will get folks to buy her albums and hear for themselves one of opera's most enchanting voices.

In Memoriam.......2005-01-16

One of the most brilliant, exquisite and beautiful voices of the 20th century extinguished today. Victoria de Los Angeles died at 83 in Barcelona. I'm writing this with grief and tears in my eyes for I loved her voice, her personality and her beautiful personna.
The title of this disc is very apt to describe her: "A lifetime achievement", "the fabulous Victoria de los Angeles". She had, first and foremost, a unique, instantly recognizable vocal timbre, a quality of tone and production that marked her off from all others. Her sense of pitch and rhythm, of phrasing and tempo was unerring. The repertoire at her command included noy only an astonishing variety of operatic parts (the staccato gaiety of Rosina, the fragility of Melisande, the frank volupte of Carmen), but also realms of music unknown. She ranged from the chaste purity of medieval canticles to the melismatic wailings of Andalusian Flamenco, from the florid baroque roulades of Handel and Carissimi to the introspective Lieder pf Hugo Wolf and Robert Schumann. Schubert's An die Musik and Valverde's Clavelitos inhabited the same program and received equal devotion from this unsnobbish interpreter.

Good bye Victoria and thank you!

Un mundo mejor.......2002-03-12

El especial atractivo, derivado no sólo de su voz sino también de su personalidad, que siempre atesoró Victoria de los Angeles hace su aparición sutil pero implacablemente en este singular CD. El oyente va siendo poco a poco atrapado por ese ambiente a la vez íntimo, trascendente y sensual que sin remedio creaba la artista en sus recitales. Belleza, sensibilidad, encanto y un algo de inefable magia nos transportan a un mundo ya lejano del que resulta doloroso tener que arrancarse.

de los Angeles sings ... and unpacks her guitar........2002-02-01

"Well, I have certainly brought my guitar with me," was the answer Victoria de los Angeles gave to reporters, on arriving in Australia in the 1950s, when asked if she would provide her own accompaniments during her forthcoming tour.

Add this CD to your cart, and you too will be able to hear her accompany herself on her guitar in a little "farewell to Granada". The bulk of the items derive from a recording session done in Barcelona in 1960 with pianist Gerald Moore. It recreates the experience that formerly could be enjoyed when a singer and piano accompanist gave a recital. There might be a few "arie antiche", a bracket of lieder, some French art songs, and then a selection of items from the singer's special repertoire. In Victoria de los Angeles' case, this meant a number of Spanish songs, usually including the ubiquitous "Clavelitos". Well, that is what can be heard here, for about 50 minutes, including brief spoken introductions to the Spanish songs.

To bring the total playing time up to 65 minutes, Testament have included the singer's performance of the aria from a Bachianas Brazileiras recorded under the composer's direction, one of the "Chants d'Auvergne", and an extract from her complete "Carmen" conducted by Beecham.

Testament have ensured that many of Victoria de los Angeles' recordings are obtainable in excellent reissues. This one, subtitled "A Lifetime Achievement" provides complete texts, some colour photographs, program notes, and biographical information about a singer who will be eighty years old in 2003.

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