Music: Butterfly from Barcelona

Word of a sensational new Spanish singer first began to drift across the Atlantic early last year; a 25-year-old raven-haired, camelia-skinned lyric soprano named Victoria de los Angeles, singing in opera and recital, had taken London and Paris by storm. Sharp-eared U.S. Impresario Sol Hurok investigated and joined the cheering section. Metropolitan Opera General Manager Rudolf Bing, who sailed for Europe last spring rather certain that his roster of leading sopranos was complete, changed his mind when he heard her. By last week, Soprano de los Angeles’ first U.S. concert performance was just about (as Hurok’s billing put it) the most “eagerly awaited” debut of the Manhattan season.

When Victoria came onstage in Carnegie Hall, plump but pretty in a black gown and pearls, she got welcoming applause befitting an established favorite. It was a situation almost overripe for a letdown, but Soprano de los Angeles lived up to her notices.

Unanimous in Geneva. The kind of natural singer whose effortlessness and grace make singing seem easy, she warmed up on the seldom-heard Recitative and Aria of Messagera from Monteverdi’s Orfeo. She soared sweetly in Scarlatti’s Le Violette, then navigated the vocal rapids of an aria from Handel’s Joshua with sureness and poise. In a full, flowing voice, at its darkest the color of a ripe Spanish olive, she sang easily (if a trifle affectedly) through a group of German lieder and on to the songs of her native Spain. In her last encore, she gracefully accompanied herself on the guitar.

Barcelona-born, black-eyed Victoria got her first nod of approval from University of Barcelona professors. She was the daughter of a campus caretaker, and to the delight of the students and the annoyance of the teachers, her childish singing could be heard in the classrooms. But the professors recognized her talent, urged her to study at Barcelona’s Conservatorio del Liceo. She did, for three years, then quit to work by herself. In 1947, assured by admirers that she could walk away with the first prize in Geneva’s International Contest, she tried, and won the unanimous vote of the judges. The concert bookings, and triumphs in London, Paris and Milan, followed.

Met in March. Married to a onetime University of Barcelona law student who is now her personal manager, Victoria says she would really like just to “sit in our house in Barcelona.” She has small chance. After a second Manhattan recital this month she will fly to Paris for a concert, then to London’s Covent Garden to sing in Manon, La Bohème and Lohengrin, then on to La Scala.

Rudi Bing’s Metropolitan Operagoers will have to wait until March to hear her in Faust, Bohème and her first Madame Butterfly.