Victoria de los Angeles, 81; Opera Singer on World Stage

Victoria de los Angeles, a Spanish lyric soprano known for her warm, vibrant, unusually sweet and flexible voice who performed on world concert and opera stages for more than four decades, has died. She was 81.

De los Angeles, born Victoria Gomez Cima, died Friday of cardio-respiratory problems in her native Barcelona, Spain.

Already a sensation in Europe, the diva made her American debut in 1950 at a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York and the next year portrayed Marguerite in Charles Gounod’s “Faust” at the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1952, she first entertained Los Angeles audiences in a concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium, with an eclectic repertoire of Spanish, German and French songs and an aria from “Faust.” Charming and open, the Spanish beauty often accompanied herself on guitar.

“One could simply lean back and enjoy her singing ... and feel as though one had not a care in the world,” a Los Angeles Times reviewer noted. “She proved that opera is as secure a province for her as art song and that she is at home as much in one as in the other.”

Two years later, Times reviewer Albert Goldberg wrote after her concert at Occidental College: “Miss De los Angeles owns one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most remarkable voices we have ever heard” and praised “that silvery, bell-like resonance which gives the De los Angeles voice its ravishing beauty of sound.”

Some three decades later little had changed in the voice, seemingly as durable as it was beautiful.

“The prolonged applause that greeted De los Angeles’ entrance was a tribute of love to a singer who for 30 years has endeared herself to the American public by the simplest and most honest means,” Goldberg wrote of her performance at the Ambassador Auditorium in 1980.

“One could detect no appreciable difference between the voice heard on this occasion and the one remembered from decades back,” he wrote. “It still has the sheen, the silvery peal, the flexibility, the tenderness and the charm.”

Asked by another Times writer during that 1980 tour how she maintained the lyric soprano voice, De los Angeles said “Regimen? Always to keep things simple, to eat simply, to live a simple life. I have never smoked and never drunk. I do not eat large quantities of food, preferring always fruits and vegetables to meat and fish.... Resting the voice is something all singers must do. I always try to be silent before a performance.”

Born into a musical family, De los Angeles grew up playing the guitar and went to the Conservatorio de Liceo in Barcelona to study singing and piano.

“When I went to the conservatory, I enjoyed the study simply for the joy of study,” she told The Times in 1980. “I had always sung, I seemed to have a voice and I loved the success of passing the exams. I did six years’ study in three, then I sang on the radio -- for 75 pesetas an appearance. My father was a caretaker at the University of Barcelona, so my earnings helped the family. But I never dreamed or aspired to a career.”

Nevertheless, a career quickly evolved, complete with the stage name of De los Angeles. She spent a couple of years with the Ars Musicae group learning German, French and Spanish songs and Baroque and Renaissance music that would prepare her for a life of concerts, then made her recital debut in 1944.

Some months later, she made her operatic debut as the Countess in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Liceo Theater in Barcelona.

De los Angeles’ career course was set after she won the Geneva International Singing Competition in 1947, earning her exposure on the BBC and rapid bookings at the Paris Opera, Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milan, Italy.

She earned praise as Mimi in “La Boheme,” Elsa in “Lohengrin” and Cio-Cio San in “Madame Butterfly,” as well as for leading roles in “Manon,” “Don Giovanni,” “Carmen,” “The Barber of Seville” and “La Traviata.”

In 1961, she was invited to open the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in a new production of “Tannhauser.”

De los Angeles worked with major conductors of the 20th century, including Sir Thomas Beecham, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta and Gabriele Santini. She recorded 21 complete operas and more than two dozen solo recitals.

Her concert tours took her not only to Europe and North America but also to South America, South Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and Australia. She sang at the closing ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992.

De los Angeles married Enrique Magrina Mir in 1948, and they had two sons, Juan Enrique and Alejandro.

Information on survivors was unavailable.