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The Fabulous Victoria de Los Angeles: A Lifetime Achievement | 
 enlarge | Creators: Tomas / Calleja Rafael Barrera, Georges Bizet, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Marie Canteloube, Gabriel Faure, Enrique Granados, Jesus Guridi, George Frederick Handel, Joaquin Nin, Francesco Sacrati, Alessandro Scarlatti, Franz Schubert, Joaquin Turina, Joaquin "quinito" Valverde, Heitor Villa-lobos, Jean-pierre Jacquillat, Thomas Beecham, Victoria De Los Angeles, L'orchestre National De La Radiodiffusion Francaise
Label: Testament UK
New (7) Used (9) from $10.50
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 749677124625
EAN: 0749677124625
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| Tracks:
| • | E dove t'aggiri | | • | Le Violette | | • | Oh! had I Jubel's lyre | | • | No. 2, Wohin? | | • | No. 8, Dein blaues Auge | | • | No. 4, Vergebliches Staendchen | | • | No. 2, Clair de lune | | • | No. 2, Callejeo | | • | No. 7, El tra la la y el punteado | | • | No. 5, Como quieres que adivine | | • | No. 7, Granadina | | • | No. 18, El Vito | | • | No. 15, El pano murciano | | • | No. 2, Tu pupila es azul | | • | L'amour est un oiseau rebelle |
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| Customer Reviews:
 In Memory Of A Great Soprano: A Tribute Album February 1, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 January 16, 2005
Manuel Reguillo-Cruz (Guadalajara, Mexico)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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 March 12, 2002
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
El especial atractivo, derivado no solo de su voz sino tambien de su personalidad, que siempre atesoro Victoria de los Angeles hace su aparicion sutil pero implacablemente en este singular CD. El oyente va siendo poco a poco atrapado por ese ambiente a la vez intimo, 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. February 1, 2002
John Austin (Kangaroo Ground, Australia)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
"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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