In 1945 Victoria de los Ángeles made her international debut at the Gran Teatro del Liceo, the opera house of her home town, in the role of the Countess of Almaviva, a theatre that had always accompanied her directly or indirectly and to which she returned in 1992 after twenty-five years of incomprehensible absence. The success was such that the third act aria and the duet had to be rewritten, according to the chronicle in La Vanguardia, and only two years later, the public was already organising tributes to her. The character of the Countess, so nostalgic and serene, was present throughout her career, and she even performed it at the Metropolitan in New York on the occasion of Mozart's two hundredth birthday on 27 January 1956.
Miah Persson, also a great Mozartian, pays her personal tribute to Victoria on her centenary, together with Joseph Middleton, exploring the Countess's loneliness and nostalgia. A role that was one of Victoria's greatest creations, perhaps because it is, in a way, a mirror of Victoria's sentimental life. Mi portasse una speranza di cangiar l'ingrato cor...
Miah Persson, soprano
Joseph Middleton, piano
Programme
Hugo Wolf
Mörike-Lieder
Auf einer Wanderung
Im Frühling
An den Schlaf
Die Geister am Mummelsee
André Caplet
Trois fables de Jeans de la Fontaine
Le Corbeau et le Renard
La Cigale et la Fourmi
Le Loup et l’Agneau
I
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
‘Porgi, amor’ from Le nozze di Figaro K492
Das Veilchen K476
Als Luise die Briefe K520
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Du liebst mich nicht D756
Daß sie hier gewesen D775
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Fidelity HobXXVIa:30
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fantasia in D minor K397 piano solo
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
‘Voi che sapete che cosa è amor’ from Le nozze di Figaro K492
An Chloe K524
Joseph Haydn
Piercing Eyes HobXXVIa:35
Franz Schubert
Bei dir allein
Rastlose Liebe
II
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ch'io mi scordi di te? K505
Franz Schubert trans. Franz Liszt (1811-1866)
Ave verum corpus piano solo
de Vier Canzonen D688
Non t’accostar all’ urna
Mio ben ricordati
Franz Schubert
Auf dem wasser D774
Abendstern D806
Joseph Haydn
Das Leben ist ein Traum HobXXVIa:21
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Abendempfindung K523
‘Dove sono’ from Le nozze di Figaro K492