The announcement was made during the presentation of Victoria de los Ángeles Year, which marks a hundred years since the artist was born. The official inauguration will be through a solemn ceremony and a concert at the University of Barcelona on 1 November 2023, and conclude with a ceremony at the Palau de la Generalitat on 6 November 2024.

The use of the Casa Hurtado, located at Av. Pedralbes, 46-48, will enable a space to be created to promote instruction and academic education by the artist’s foundation and will be open to the public. Work on the building should be completed in 2025.

A jewel of Catalan modernisme

The Casa Hurtado is a modernista house of 403,29 square metres, built in 1906 by the architect Guillem Busquets as a summer house for the family of Antonio Hurtado. It consists of a ground floor and two upper floors, with the rooftop designed in the Catalan construction tradition of terraces with balustrades.

As a modernista building it reflects this in its architecture, the approach to the ceilings and the paving (hydraulic tiles) and the application of ceramics, with or without glass, the ironwork of the railings for the balconies and the bricks in the façades.

Centenary full of activity

Notable activities in store for Victoria de los Ángeles Year include a central gala at El Liceu with Vincent Huguet as the stage director, a route around the Palau de la Música Catalana exploring the various facets of the soprano’s repertoire, and a Spanish music gala at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid.

The Lied Festival Victoria de los Ángeles (LIFE Victoria Barcelona) will be devoting its entire programme to the soprano under the slogan “Possible and impossible dialogues with Victoria de los Ángeles”, based on a 1970s BBC interview with her for the programme Desert Island Discs.

A legend who never renounced her origins

Victoria de los Ángeles (Barcelona, 1923-2005) was one of the most legendary singers of the 20^th century. Acclaimed by the finest opera theatres in the world, hers was one of the favourite voices at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The New York Metropolitan also enjoyed here performances for a decade.

She was also a regular performer at venues such as the Royal Opera House (London), the Opéra National de París, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The artist never renounced her origins as the daughter of the concierge at the University of Barcelona, where she was born a century ago.