With a gala on November 7, the Gran Teatre del Liceu will honor on its centenary the life and career of Victoria de los Ángeles, the Catalan soprano who died in 2005 and who shone with her singing on stages around the world. The gala will feature eleven international mezzos and sopranos who have it as a reference: Maria Agresta, Joyce DiDonato, Sarah Connolly, Louise Alder, Juliana Grigoryan, Sabina Puértolas, Helena Ressureiçao, Fatma Said, Anne Schwanewilms, Iréne Theorin and Marina Viotti will provide their voices to pay tribute to the soprano who debuted at the Liceu in 1945, with The Marriage of Figaro and went on to perform 68 times for this audience. “This was Victoria's house in Barcelona,” said Helena Mora, president of the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation.
The event (7:30 p.m.) will be conducted by maestro Lucas Macías – head of the Granada Orchestra and musical director of the Oviedo Orchestra – and pianist Julius Drake, who accompanied the honoree in life. They will shape the core of the operatic repertoire of one of the great lyrical works of the 20th century.
The works, chosen by the singers in agreement with Marc Busquets, curator of the centenary, want to be a journey through Victoria de los Ángeles' not only professional career, but also human, as a woman and mother, and as an artist committed to young talent. Among the pieces on the program are The Barber of Seville, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème and Manon, which are some of her compositions that made her successful. The act that will completely review her career in opera seeks to explain, through music, what her life was like.
At the gala, some of the costumes used by the artist will also be exhibited, who had 180 dresses, now stored in the Institut del Teatre. These models will descend with a mannequin from the top of the stage to establish a conversation with the role that each diva plays. This dialogue between memory and future is an idea by Vincent Huguet staged for the 350th of the Paris Opera.
