Lieder. - Victoria de Los Angeles - sound recording reviews

National Review, August 15, 1994 by Ralph de Toledano

In juxtaposition, a retrospective four-CD collection of Lieder and operatic performances by Victoria de Los Angeles, and a video cassette of Maria Callas: Life & Art - both from Angel/EMI. Victoria de Los Angeles was no Lucrezia Bori, but her singing had something of the quality of Bori; and though her voice lacked the power of some of her contemporaries, she sang with great artistry and sensitivity. It is a pity that this album does not include her beautiful renditions of Spanish folk music, though it represents her at her best in more formal settings.

The cassette of Miss Callas points up her shortcomings: sentimentality, an overblown delivery, and a tendency to sharp in the higher registers. She was a throwback to the old days of bravura singers who led bravura lives; she had a magnificent instrument which she never fully disciplined and a way of flinging herself into roles to capture the cheers and adulation of many. Perhaps now we will have a similar retrospective of the truly great Renata Tebaldi with, we pray, the "Willow Song" and "Ave Maria" from Verdi's Otello.