One hundred years ago today, in one of the towers of the historic building of the University of Barcelona, one of the most privileged voices in the history of opera, the most complete singer of her generation and whom, like Alicia de Larrocha, It is due to him that Spanish music has settled in planetary territories.
Or it was not exactly where she was born, since the birth must have been complicated and some medicine professor in the Science classroom would advise transferring the parturient to the Clinic. In any case, the family home, where it was customary to give birth at the time, was the emblematic building of the institution in which Victoria de los Ángeles' parents were employees.
The great soprano from Barcelona would spend the first 25 years of her life there, whose international career would end up being a trail of successes, whether singing oratorio or being one of the best in lied or opera. His was a very musical childhood, with a singing mother and Uncle Ángel who was fond of the guitar. In the classrooms and especially in the resonant auditorium of the University, Victoria would work on her vocal projection while her mother cleaned. She was not self-taught, but she did forge her position in that place, she created her voice by listening to herself in these spaces to the enjoyment of the students who sometimes heard her singing Neapolitans... and even jotas , if necessary.
They would be the happiest years of her life, she herself would say. Her father, a janitor at the institution, instilled her curiosity and love for culture. Together they went up to the roof on starry nights, spread a quilt and lay down to baptize each star, explains Helena Mora, who was the artist's daughter-in-law and currently chairs the Foundation that bears her name.
“For her, the University was a city within another city: an oasis where she could play with the children of other employees or where she could choose which cat was her favorite,” says Mora. Her cultural environment would influence him. And although she never got to study there, since at 13 or 14 she already entered the Liceu Conservatory [with her voice already in place], she would later be named Honoris Causa... in her own home! At the time of making her speech she said that, more than speaking, the best thing she could do was sing.
According to the well-documented volume The Career of Victoria de los Ángeles (Témenos Edicions) published a decade ago by Manuel Capdevila, the soprano totaled 2,452 performances including operas, recitals and recordings. Where she sang the most was in Barcelona, 215 times, followed by New York, 200. The Big Apple would be her second home, although she would never take an apartment there. This November 1, the Metropolitan Opera House dedicates a performance of Puccini's La bohème to her on her centenary, precisely the opera that she performed the most (on 67 occasions) and whose recording would sell five million copies. A record yet to be broken in the operatic sphere.
Now another biography is about to be published, this one by music journalist Pep Gorgori, who has delved into the correspondence that Victoria had with her manager in the United States, with her right-hand man in Europe or with Rudolf Bing, the manager of the Met, "which gives an interesting overview of how things were done in the '50s and '60s," he points out. "And as far as family correspondence is concerned, he wrote frequently with his parents and siblings, although sometimes From 60 and 70 onwards it is noticeable that they talk on the phone because the frequency decreases.
"When her father died, she and her mother often included the topic of sewing in their letters: she told him that she had been knitting (she was able to knit for the whole family during tours in the US) and she "They exchanged patterns or recommended that their mother go buy fabric in that store they knew," continues Gorgori, who in his dive through the National Archive of Catalonia and the 119 boxes of a thousand sheets each about Victoria, has tried to humanize the myth. and look for the seams.
“In three and a half years I have not been able to find them. Nobody had any hatred for him, there was no run-run. And it is curious that Maria Callas came to ask about her at the Met, because she did not appear in the press, Victoria did not like that social life, and Callas wanted to know if she was as perfect as she seemed," she says.
Music would bring great happiness to the diva who never showed herself as such. “It was easy to work with her, but you had to understand her and, in some way, guess what would happen in the concert because, except to find balance with the orchestra, in rehearsals she did not sing out loud,” explains director and composer Antoni Ros. Marbà.
And he adds: “Victoria had extraordinary musical logic. And unexpected things happened, miracles occurred, transcendent moments when she took you away. I remember when I was young, at the Palau de la Música, we did Maig de Toldrà and my impression is that in those three minutes of music time stopped and I felt a shiver in my back. They are memories of her that I only keep with her and some other artists, like Maria Joao Pires. Because when special things happened it was not in the great trebles or in passages of great voice, but in its great natural musicality.”
Ros Marbà also remembers a magical evening at La Senya Blanca, also known as Josep Ensea i Gubert's chalet, which was the first chalet in the S'Agaró Urbanització and hosted musical evenings with leading artists. It was a quiet night, at the pool. There were Maria Toldrà and other people from the world of culture who were moving through the Empordà at the time, he recalls. "Victoria never did musical bureaucracy, she never sang without getting involved. And her vocal quality was a treasure. She had a fantastic intuition in phrasing, she never needed a coach, she studied the piano at home by herself," adds the orchestra director.
"Yes, in her thousand m² apartment on Av. de Pedralbes she had a large living room with a Steinway, but she worked in a small room, as if it were the Queen's boudoir of the Alhambra, something intimate," adds the teacher. Josep Pons, who worked with her on the '92 Olympics ceremony. Spanish poetry was divided at that time, and Victoria and Alfredo Kraus were on one side, Plácido, Carreras and others on the other... "Victoria's remaining friends were outside: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Fischer Dieskau..." point.
A friendship arose with Pons that translated into collaborations with the Teatre Lliure Chamber Orchestra that the Catalan maestro directed. They recorded Falla, remember. “But she didn't want to rehearse. 'I'll look at you when we're recording,' she told me. But the moment came and the woman closed her eyes... and she did not open them until the end! It was pure magic,” she remembers.
Victoria had a clear idea of what she wanted musically. On one occasion, working with Von Karajan, she wanted to suggest another tempo, since she didn't like the one she was using. But he ignored her and continued with the essay. Victoria was silent, she did not sing a note. It was her first and last time with the German genius.
“She wasn't a diva, but she was the one in charge,” says composer Albert Guinovart, whom he chose as a young pianist as an accompanying pianist in the 1990s, when he was already older. Victoria would die in 2005. “You were at her service, which I did willingly, because it was a stage of maturity, I had already prepared everything and therefore I did not propose anything, I only tried to favor what she wanted.” .
People adored her, she confesses. And in recital she did both German lied and French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Catalan songs...
“There were moments in the recital when it seemed like an angel had passed by. Because even though she was older she had a very youthful voice, the color did not age or become vibrato as often happens with other singers. Curiously, when she was tired she had more problems with the bass than with the treble,” says the pianist and composer.
Guinovart will never be able to forget his singing at the funeral of his own first-born son, who died in 1998 at the age of 34. “It was in the Bonanova church and we were all shocked. She did a Pie Jesu from Fauré's Requiem that was a prodigy. We heard a heavenly voice,” she says, evoking emotion.
The singer fell into depression. Her life had shaken her. Her marriage to Enric Magriñá had been a trial by fire. “The day she got married she cried, she realized that she was making a mistake,” explains her daughter-in-law. Magriñá instantly relieved José María Lamaña as manager. And she would ruin it, she would abandon her obligations as her representative, leaving unopened a large number of letters from international theaters and agents that claimed her... And she would go on to have five children out of wedlock.
A day after Alejandro, Victoria's second son, was born, her husband baptized the girl who was born from his affair with his secretary with the name Alejandra. And to top it all off, she hid from him for three months that little Alejandro had Down syndrome, so as not to distract her from her actions. “On Magriñá's deathbed, she cried because of the sadness that she felt for never having been able to be loved by that man,” Mora concludes.
