It will not be a typical edition, this one of Life Victoria, since the festival will extend throughout the 2023-2024 season as a celebration of the soprano’s centenary. The programming is also based on an interview that Victoria de los Ángeles gave to the Desert Island Discs program in 1978, in which the guest listed the records and books that she would take to a desert island: Images by Debussy, the famous Liebestod by Tristan und Isolde by Neruda, Concerto no. 3 for violin by Mozart, Carmen the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th, the sounds that remind us that we are alive (cars, birds…), as well as the Victory of Samothrace and Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke.
From what Victoria heard and read, a forty recitals emerged, starting on October 3, that the organization classifies between “possible dialogues”, those of Victoria with Schubert, Falla, Debussy, Carmen, Manon and “impossible dialogues”, pieces that the artist did not perform but that are “part of her artistic personality”, such as Tristan or the poetry and correspondence of Rilke that will be recited by Josep Maria Flotats accompanied by the pianist Marta Puig, one of the resident artists of the season (26 /V, in the modernist area of ??Sant Pau).
“If the mission is to maintain Victoria’s legacy, this is undoubtedly one of the most honest that an artist can leave,” says the president of the Foundation, Helena Mora. The list of mezzos and sopranos called to participate in the celebration is long and notable: Sarah Connolly, Felicity Lott, Iréne Theorin, Marina Viotti, Fleur Barron… But also debuts such as that of the historic Natalie Dessay or Julie Fuchs, Elsa Dreisig , Miah Persson and Golda Schultz. The last will explore the relationship between Victoria and Marian Anderson, the African-American singer who was an icon of the anti-racist struggle. In addition, Núria Rial from Manresa will repeat the program created for the centenary that she brought to Peralada in the summer with Rubén Fernández.
The inaugural concert (October 3) is led by two more resident artists: Natalia Labourdette and the pianist Kunal Lahiry, who together with the tenor Laurence Kilsby will cover five centuries of popular and cultured songs, just like Victoria throughout her career, from to delve into early music with Ars Musicae.
The foundation will unite the hundreds of Victoria and the hundreds of Antoni Tàpies with a concert by the SenArts wind quartet in the Tàpies. And in the Palau de la Música, the Symfònica Victòria dels Àngels will perform with the vocal talents that it has promoted: Mercedes Gancedo, Irene Mas Salom, Montserrat Seró… A concert in a Catalan key that will tour the territory.