Eternal Victoria, a centenary closing event open to the public for Victoria de los Ángeles
November 2024
After a year of uninterrupted activity, the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation will officially close the soprano’s centenary on November 6 with an institutional event at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya. As this is an invitation-only event, the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation has decided to offer the same program as a closing event open to the entire public on two occasions.
It will be held at the Monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès, on Saturday, November 2 at 8:30 PM, and at the Church of Santa Anna in Barcelona, on Sunday, November 3 at 7 PM. Thus, all those who wish to attend will be able to participate in the closing of this Year dedicated to the soprano, both in Barcelona, the city where she was born and lived most of her life, and in Sant Cugat del Vallès, where she spent the last years of her life.
The concerts will feature soprano Irene Mas Salom, baritone Josep-Ramon Olivé, the Victoria de los Ángeles Symphony Orchestra and Noctes Chamber Choir, conducted by Pedro Pardo, who will perform Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Ave Verum Corpus, and the premiere of the Ave Maria by composer Joan Morera.
The choice of program and artists is not arbitrary. Irene Mas Salom and Josep Ramon-Olivé have been scholarship recipients of the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation, have participated in LIFE Victoria on numerous occasions, and are alumni of the Victoria de los Ángeles Lied Master’s program taught at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
Regarding the program, Fauré’s Requiem, which was pivotal in Victoria’s life and which she recorded with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and conducted by André Cluytens in 1963, will be performed; as well as the Laudate Dominum from Vesperae solennes de confessore K339 and the Ave Verum Corpus K618, recorded by Victoria in an anthological recording made at Bath Cathedral in the sixties conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. The program is completed by Fauré’s Pavane Op. 50 and the absolute premiere of the Ave Maria for choir by Joan Morera, nephew of Enric Morera, never before premiered.
As part of the social commitment of the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation, the funds raised from both concerts will be donated to benefit patients of Cáritas (Sant Cugat) and the Hospital de Campanya (Barcelona).
With more than 150 recitals, various exhibitions, a biography, and numerous institutions involved, both international (such as the Metropolitan Opera House and Carnegie Hall in New York; Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall in London) and national (such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Real de Madrid, or Teatro de la Zarzuela), the Victoria de los Ángeles centenary has been another step towards making the figure of Victoria de los Ángeles accessible to all citizens.
Following the Foundation’s mission, which is the preservation and dissemination of her legacy, so that the soprano’s vital and artistic testimony continue to live on.
According to Marc Busquets, commissioner of the Victoria de los Ángeles Year, «The centenary has arrived at an ideal moment, when the Foundation was consolidated after fifteen years of activity, and it has exceeded all our expectations. The response from institutions and citizens has been spectacular, and closing it in this way is the ideal culmination for this year full of celebrations, both nationally and internationally».
