Born: 6 July 1845, Mexico
Died: 30 August 1883
Country most active: International
Also known as: María de los Ángeles Manuela Tranquilina Cirila Efrena Peralta Castera
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Angela Peralta was born in Mexico City in July, 1845 and was baptized in the Cathedral. She died in the City of Mazatlan Sinaloa on August, 1883. She received a very good education and spoke Italian, French and English. Ever since she was a child she showed her liking of music and at the age of eight years she sang in public La Cavatina and Belisario with great success. At that time an Operatic Company arrived in Mexico City where the famous Enrique Contay was the Prima-Donna. Angela attended one of the shows and she was so much impressed that when she returned to her home she acted the parts she had seen and heard at the opera. Somehow this fact became known by the Italian singer and she asked to see Angela. When she saw the child she smiled with doubt, but when she heard her sing she was amazed and giving her a piece of music she said: “If your father will take you to Italy to study you will become one of the greatest singers in the world.” In 1860 Angela made her formal appearance in public in the great National Theatre singing Trovatore, by Verdi, with a tremendous success. She was then fifteen years old.
In the year 1861, accompanied by her father, she left Mexico and went to the Port of Cadiz, where she gave several concerts, after which the public called her The Mexican Nightingale. She left Cadiz and arrived at Milano in the month of May where she took lessons from the famous maestro Lamperti. On the fifteenth of April 1862, she made her first appearance in the theater Carconne of Milano, Italy, singing El Rondo, after that she sang at the Santa Ragemunda theater. On the thirteenth of May she appeared for the first time in the Scala de Milan also with great success. In the same year she went to Turin, where she sang La Sonambula de Bellini before the King of Italy with such a great success she was compelled to thank the public thirty-two times. She appeared in most of the Italian theaters. In 1863 she signed a contract with the Theater of Bergamo, birthplace of Donizetti, the season being devoted to Lucia. She received great ovations in all the performances and one night Donizetti’s son went to see her and with his eyes full of tears told her: “More than ever I now deplore my father’s death, for he was not lucky enough to hear the best interpreter of his divine opera, allow me to kiss the hand of such a great artist in his name.” After one of her performances she was given a gold crown as a token of admiration by the Italian public. She then went to Lisbon, where she received a necklace with twelve large diamonds from the Queen. On November 29, 1864, she went to Alexandria, Egypt and had the same success.
She returned to Mexico, November 19, 1865, at the age of twenty years. Thousands of people went to meet her. She had ten musical arrangements published and continued to captivate the opera lovers of Mexico for many years. She died of yellow fever at the Port of Mazatlan on August 3, 1883.