De los Ángeles: The Classical Repertoire

As I observed this past Saturday, those albums of soprano Victoria de los Ángeles that are not full-length operas tend to present their content as “historical journeys.” The selections are not always chronologically ordered, but they provide many engaging compare-and-contrast opportunities. Furthermore, because her Warner Classics anthology does not include any of the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the songs and arias from the classical period provide the only opportunity to listen to de los Ángeles singing his music.

Sadly, those selections are rather modest in their numbers. Among her early 78 RPM recordings, there are two arias from The Marriage of Figaro. Ironically, both of them come from the second act of the opera (which, from a narrative point of view, is the most engaging). As might be guessed, one of the arias is Cherubino’s “Voi che sapete che cosa è amor.” This is coupled with the very beginning of the second act, when the Countess Rosina Almaviva dwells on her husband’s infidelity singing “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro.”

The more recent recordings from the Sixties include the K. 505 concert aria in three movements “Ch'io mi scordi di te?” However, this period is best known for Mozart’s sacred motets. K. 165, Exsultate, jubilate, is sung in its entirety. The lengthier K. 339, Vesperae solennes de Confessore, is represented only by the “Laudate Dominum” aria. That is not very much, but it is enough to convince the attentive listener that de los Ángeles knew her Mozart.

Overall, the classical repertoire is distributed over only seven CDs. Ironically, the richest of these is a duet album with baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The two of them are accompanied at the piano by Gerald Moore, and there is much to enjoy from the classical period. Ludwig van Beethoven gets the lion’s share with his arrangements of songs from Ireland and Wales that he arranged on commission. There is one song by Haydn “Schlaf in deiner engen Kammer,” which is coupled by a song from the same period by Johann Christian Bach “Ah! lamenta, oh bella Irene.” At the other end of the Classical period is one of the songs from Franz Schubert’s D. 877 Gesänge aus “Wilhelm Meister” cycle.

There is also a CD with selections from Moore’s “retirement recital.” For that occasion, de los Ángeles and Fischer-Dieskau were joined by soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Unfortunately, only the tracks that included de los Ángeles were included on the CD for that performance. Fortunately, the full recital is available on another Warner Classics release.

Sadly, the total number of selections do not add up to very much. However, neither performers nor listeners tend to have much say in determining what gets recorded. The classical period clearly did not receive very much attention in this collection, but there is nothing wrong with making the best of what one has.