Whenever I am asked to make a list of the greatest sopranos of the "modern" era (the LP and later) one name is always at the top of my list - Mariella Devia.  For many opera goers, however, her name remains relatively unknown and that is ironic considering her accomplishments.

Mariella Devia is really a vocal anachronism, a throwback to earlier times when singers were prized for their vocal allure rather than dramatic accomplishments.  That is not to imply that on stage she just stands and sings.  It is just that her set of artistic priorities lie within vocal rather than dramatic standards.  For many of today's audiences that is not enough.  Listeners weaned on recordings of Callas, Caballe, Sills etc find much of Devia's beautiful, perfectly judged singing bland.  Indeed, the one criticism that I hear constantly is that she is "boring." Mariella Devia makes operatic singing seem easy but audiences often enjoy the circus-tent aspect of operatic vocalism - the struggle, the overt dramaticism and Devia is not the kind of artist who will distort a vocal line merely for dramatic effect or gallery approval.  Much of this, I am sure, has to do with her inherent temperament.  In all the interviews and articles that I have read, and in all the performances I have seen, Mariella Devia does not seem to be a "dramatically-driven" singer.  Instead she offers listeners lessons in what singing should be at its most pure - beautiful, effortless, comforting, even healing.  She remains a "singer's singer" - probably the highest compliment that can be paid a singer by a colleague but not much to bank on when it comes to popularity with general audiences.  Mariella Devia will never have the adulation of a singer like Callas or Sutherland, or Gruberova (her contemporary) but in the annals of opera I suspect that she will come to represent those elusive qualities that are the most prized in the art of operatic singing - richness of tone, smoothness of emission, perfect modulations throughout the entire voice and expressive sensitivity.

Let me further explain the two schools of thought when it comes to singers:one "school" prizes vocal quality above all else (Devia and Sutherland are good examples of this school), the other values dramatic interpretation (Maria Callas, Magda Olivero, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballe and Beverly Sills for example).  Heated arguments constantly break out among opera aficionados as to which "school" is to be preferred.  What many fail to realize is that there is room for both.  To not be able to experience either would make all of us much more spiritually poor.

Callas' voice is nowhere near the perfected instrument of Devia, nor is it as beautiful.  Yet, through her imperfections Callas was able to permeate the music she sang with her own personality.  Devia does not.  She prefers letting the music and her voice speak for themselves.  That is not to say that one cannot immediately recognize her work through the unique timbre of her voice or the way she uses it - or that she cannot be an exciting singer but rather that Devia rarely lets a personal agenda enter into her singing.  The bottom line is that it is merely a differing set of vocal priorities.  Both schools are valid and it really is only a matter of personal preference.

I saw Devia many times at the Metropolitan Opera as Gilda (Rigoletto), Constanza (Entfuhrung) and Lucia.  I enjoyed every single performance.  Each role seemed to bring out, or underline, some specific facet of Devia's art - Gilda, her lyricial pathos, Lucia her virtuosity and Costanza the immaculate precision of her vocal attack.  In a number of instances I was present for an entire run - such as her 1992 Lucia di Lammermoor.  Her degree of consistency during the series of performances was astonishing and most welcome in an era of predominately inconsistent performers.  Yet it is such constant perfection that eventually becomes wearing for some listeners.  It is best experienced in person and as part of the moment.  Oddly it does not lend itself well to constant relistenings.

To give you an example, on June 4, 1992 Devia sang a concert in Lugano, Switzerland which was then issued on Bongiovanni CD (GB 2513-2).  (See the photo at the top of this article.) By the highest standards of any vocal era it is a remarkable accomplishment.  The concert is one of the most demanding programs for a lyric coloratura one can find anywhere on disc - arias from I Capuletti, La Sonnambula, Romeo et Juliette and Louise, Mad Scenes from I Puritani and Lucia di Lammermoor, and the pyrotechnical Bell Song from Delibes' Lakmé.  The Bongiovanni CD is a singular recording of elegant singing that is all the more stunning because it comes from a live concert and not a recording studio where such difficult pieces can be taken apart phrase by phrase and reassembled.  In purely vocal terms it is one of the most perfectly sung recitals released during the 1990s.

And yet, I must admit that for all my deep admiration (and love) for this wonderful recital disc, I rarely return to it.  The reasons are complex but help explain the paradox that lies at the core of why Mariella Devia is so grossly underrated today.  Although she stands as an example of that perfection all singers strive to achieve, it is that very achievement that alienates her.  There is a mono-chromaticism, a generic beauty in her singing which can lead to aural monotony.  The Lugano Concert is the type of disc I would invariably take down from my shelves to play for someone to demonstrate exquisite singing, but it is not one that (after I had experienced it the first time) I would decide to sit down and listen to all the way through repeatedly.  It is almost too perfect.

So what kind of voice is it? It is a lush, full-bodied, darkly-timbered, lyric coloratura of exceptional range and flawless technique.  The bottom and middle registers have a wonderful dark fullness and there is a most appealing bloom to her voice as she ascends into the ledger-line area.  Her timbre has the burnt, smoldering glory of the finest Lapsang Souchong tea, or if one is into fabrics, dark brown velvet.  Her range is quite wide (from Ab below the staff to an easy F above high C) and the voice is perfectly modulated from top to bottom.  It is a medium-sized instrument (which Devia never forces).  Her fastly-spun vibrato sits easily on the ear as do her dynamic shadings from piano to forte.  Her control during such shadings is exemplary and her precision and ease of attack in the upper register must be the envy of female colleagues.  She is musically scrupulous and yet when it comes to ornamentation she can be surprisingly inventive and often quite daring.

She is also a singer that constantly surprises.  Generally, one thinks of her as a lyric-coloratura.  Yet she often challenges that concept.  As a rule Devia rarely ascends above high E flat or E natural.  I found it fascinating that during the course of her career she has shown tremendous daring by ascending higher.  In 1980, about six years into her career, she sang a performance of Lucia in which she sang the heroine's arias in their raised keys.  One would have thought that by 1986, Devia had left her high F safely behind - restricting its use to private vocalizing in order to ensure the beauty of her public high E flat.  Not at all.  In July of 1989, she surprised audiences by assuming a very successful Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote at Covent Garden.  The next year she topped that by singing a concert performance of Lucia for RAI in which she again sang the heroine's arias in the higher keys but also the duet with Enrico (more about that performance below).  One would have thought that was enough of a challenge.  But no, in February of 1992, nineteen years into her professional career, she decided to finish a Palermo performance of La Sonnambula with a brilliantly sustained, penultimate high F.  This particular ending was never her practice with this opera and her decision to use such an interpolation came as a surprise.  It proves, however, that Devia is a remarkably smart woman when it comes to her voice and its workings.  In other words, although she obviously could call on a high F whenever she wanted during her career, she held it aside - only using it for specific performances.  The fact that she could do such a thing at that point in her career says much about the healthy condition of her voice after so many years of constant singing.  Compared to many of her colleagues, Devia remains a model example of what all singers aspire to.  The kind of consistency and ease of production that eludes so many.  She is refreshing and full of surprises.

Devia has been singing professionally since 1973.  After having studied with Jolanda Magnoni and graduating from the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, Devia won the 1973 Toti Dal Monte Competition in Treviso and made her debut as Lucia.  During the early 1970s she gradually built her career in the Italian provinces and by 1979 made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Gilda.  In the 1980s she was appearing internationally throughout Europe and America.  Devia quickly became known as a champion of some of the more obscure works of the ottocento repertoire as well as the accepted "standards" - Lucia, Puritani, Sonnambula etc.  During the 1990s she began to undertake some of the heavier otto cento roles - Parisina, Lucrezia Borgia, while still maintaining her usual repertoire.  In 1999 she conquered New York concert goers with her performance of Donizetti's rarely heard Adelia (with Eve Queler and Opera Orchestra of New York).  Despite her excellent record of performances at the Metroplitan Opera she has not been heard there since her Lucia performances in February of 1994.  Considering her versatility, the roles she was assigned at that house bordered on the ludicrous - Nanetta, Despina, Gilda, Lucia and Constanza.  Devia's 2002-2003 seasons show no letting up in her scheduling of difficult repertoire: Lucrezia Borgia, Don Giovanni, I Lombardi, Faust, Idomeneo and Marino Faliero (Donizetti).  Her appearances during that time seem to center around Spain and Italy.

Although a florid specialist, the range of composers and operas that Devia has performed is impressive - Spontini, Donizetti (Lucia, Pasquale, Adelia, Elisir, Fille du Regiment, Linda di Chamonix,Parisina, Lucrezia Borgia), Bellini (Puritani, Sonnambula, Beatrice di Tenda, I Capuletti), Cherubini (Lodoiska), Verdi (including a recording of his complete songs), Bizet (Leila in Pecheurs de Perles), Delibes (Lakmé), Mozart (Cosi fan tutte, Nozze di Figaro, Pamina and the infamous Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote, Don Giovanni, and Illia in Idomeneo), Monteverdi, Auber (Manon Lescaut), Pergolesi, Rossini (Semiramide, Barber of Seville, Count Ory, Nozze di Teti, Mose, Otello, Tancredi, Turco in Italia, and Zelmira) and Berlioz (Benvenuto Cellini).  Unlike many of her contemporaries Devia has remained within her particular "fach" and rarely strayed far from it.  This has kept her instrument, fresh and vibrant over the past 27 years.  Although the voice has darkened a bit and become a tad more weighty, it has lost none of its plasticity or immediacy and she still never uses aspirates to help in florid work.  Different from so many of her colleagues, despite the length of her career Mariella Devia's art remains free of personal idiosyncrasies and annoying mannerisms.  Legato is even and pure, and attack is always immediate and scoop-less.  Her pitch, even during the most complicated roulades is right-on and the breath control is rock solid.

Although Devia is consistent in her vocal emission (detractors would claim she is too clinically "clean"), she can be refreshingly original when it comes to ornamentation.  The Nuova Era CD of the 1989 Catania I Puritani with Richard Bonynge at the helm has ornamentation quite different from other Puritani performances Devia has given.(Admittedly in the Catania performance she used Joan Sutherland's ornamentation.  Edita Gruberova did as well when she sang the role at the Metropolitan Opera under the direction of Bonynge.) When it comes to ornamentation Mariella Devia is anything but a static artist depending, of course, on the venue or the conductor she is working with.  When she performed Puritani a few years later in concert with Eve Queler, Devia used an entirely different set of ornaments - some quite staggeringly complex.  Another example of her ornamental ingenuity can be heard in various performances of Countess Adele's aria from Rossini's Count Ory where she creates a virtuostic fabric of florid cascades that I have not heard equaled anywhere else.

One would have expected that with such vocalism Mariella Devia would be represented by one of the major recording labels, yet the opposite happens to be true.  Most of Mariella Devia's recordings are due to the efforts of much smaller, in many instances privately produced, record companies.  For whatever reason, Devia's commercial recorded output is tiny.  Fortunately, the upsurge of "live" operatic recordings and proliferation of smaller labels during the 1980s enabled Devia to be caught in some of her most important roles.  No less than 3 of her performances of Lucia di Lammermoor have been released, as well as recordings of Bellini's I Puritani and La Sonnambula, Donizetti's Adelia, Lucrezia Borgia, Rossini's Adelaide di Borgogna, Mozart's Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, and others.  All these recordings should be staples of an operatic library.  As far as I have been able to ascertain, live recordings document her professional career from about 1975 (an RAI broadcast of Spontini's Milton).  Her more recent performances tend to circulate as soon as they have taken place.

Before going into the merits of Devia's recordings I would like to take a moment to discuss a performance that is privately circulating but which remains one of the most striking documents of Mariella Devia's art I have ever heard.  It is an RAI concert radio broadcast of a complete, uncut Lucia di Lammermoor from Rome, September 17, 1990.  The cast included Mariella Devia as Lucia, Alfredo Kraus as Edgardo, Roberto Servile as Enrico, Aurio Tomicich as Raimondo with Franco Manino conducting.  One of the things that makes this Lucia performance so special is the decision to use the original performance keys of E flat & A flat for "Regnava nel silenzio" (usually performed D & G), A major for the Lucia/Enrico Duet in Act II (again, usually performed in G) and F major for the Mad Scene (usually performed a step lower, in E flat).

Although it is true that during the entirety of her career Lily Pons habitually raised "Regnava nel silenzio" and the Mad Scene and although Joan Sutherland and Sherrill Milnes recorded the Lucia/Enrico in its high key on her second studio recording of Lucia, I know of no other live performance where not only was Lucia di Lammermoor performed complete, with all the high keys used, but also where all the "traditional" high interpolations were also incorporated.  I am sure that one of the reasons it is so rarely performed this way is that it makes the role of Lucia an exceedingly difficult "sing." The use of the high keys does, however, provide colors and key sequences not experienced in other versions.  Because of all these things this performance remains one of the most enjoyable recordings of this opera I have heard.

Actually, years before this concert took place Devia had sung a performance of Lucia that incorporated the higher keys for "Regnava nel silenzio" and the Mad Scene.  That was in Parma, in April of 1980, with Massimo Pradella conducting and with Vincenza Puma as Edgardo and Franco Bordoni as Enrico.  Although that performance (only available on tape) is excellent, this later performance finds Devia at the peak of her vocal powers.

The conductor, Franco Manino, is someone I had not been familiar with before but he creates a performance of great beauty.  Revelling in the expressiveness of Donizetti's score this is an expansive performance that lasts almost ten minutes longer than the complete commercial recording with Beverly Sills and Thomas Schippers.  Manino encourages his singers - even Raimondo - to use pianissimo and to shade and ornament the music.  This is the only performance I know of where Raimondo ornaments the second statement of his "Cedi, Cedi" during the often-cut Raimondo/Lucia duet sequence.  Bass Aurio Tomicich does so with surprising elan and imagination.  It is a welcome touch to not only his music but also his characterization.  Manino also manages to make the hackneyed "Sextet" sound refreshingly new with his sweeping concept and ability to bring out various singer's lines at appropriate moments.  Due to his clever and careful building of the Act, the final ensemble of Act II stands, as it should, as the culmination of Lucia's losing fight with sanity.

Born in 1927, the sixty-three year-old Alfredo Kraus is a vocal miracle - ardent, masculine, of seemingly endless breath control, and glorious high notes of intensity.  Typical of this most generous artist he even offers an excellent high D flat (with Devia) at the end of the "Sextet." His singing of the usually-cut Wolf Crag Scene is one of the highlights of the performance.  The final scene of the opera - a true test for any tenor singing the role of Edgardo - is one of the best.  The tempi that Manino and Kraus decide on are slower than usual but Kraus shows his expertise in breath-less legato phrases and interpretive nuances.  You would never suspect that the singer was in his sixties.  He sounds better than most of his colleagues who are 30 years younger.  It is an elegantly sung rendition and a fitting finish for the performance.  Roberto Servile is a bit rough-and-ready sounding but that works well with his concept of the role of Enrico.  He also copes well with the difficulty of performing the duet with Lucia in the raised key, offering a solid, sustained high A at its conclusion.

On that night Mariella Devia truly gave her audience a gift from heaven with her singing - limpid legato, glittering pianissimi, stunningly easy high notes, exquisite musicianship and a definite dramatic involvement despite the concert venue.  The fact that she would undertake such a challenge at that point in her career speaks much for the type of artist she is.  At the time of this performance she was not a young singer beginning her career with something to prove, she was a 39 year-old, seasoned artist who had been performing internationally for almost 20 years.

This is a high note fest if there ever was one with Devia providing some of the most glorious high register singing of her career.  There are at least 3 sustained high Ds, 2 E flats, an E natural, and two high Fs (during the Mad Scene).  The Mad Scene itself shimmers with high pianissimi, subtle pitch colorations and an original cadenza (sung a capella) that incorporates themes and even text from earlier acts.  This cadenza finds Devia winding her way through melismatic effects, staccati, trills and an unusually graceful finish.  It fits the scene better than most other cadenzas (most with flute) I have heard.  After all the high register singing during the course of that evening, the fact that Devia sounds as fresh when she finishes as when she began is a tribute to her training, the solidity of her technique and her innate understanding of her own instrument and its capabilities.

A number of Mariella Devia's recordings are sui generis as lessons in exquisite vocalism and certainly worthy of study - especially by other like-voiced singers.

Suggested Mariella Devia Recordings
(many are live recordings that may go in and out of print.)

Recital Discs

Concert from Lugano, Switzerland June 4, 1992
(Bongiovanni CD GB2513-2)

Bellini: "Oh quante volte" (I Capuletti)
Bellini: "Come per me sereno" (La Sonnambula)
Bellini: Mad Scene (I Puritani)
Donizetti: Mad Scene (Lucia di Lammermoor)
Gounod: Waltz Song (Romeo et Juliette)
Charpentier: "Depuis le jour" (Louise)
Delibes: Bell Song (Lakmé)

Mariella Devia - La Morte di Didone e Arie di Baule
Concert from the 1996 Pesaro Festival
(Bongiovanni CD GB 2524-2)

Rossini: "Squallida veste" (Turco in Italia)
Rossini: "Cingi la benda candida" (Adelaide di Borgogna)
Potogallo: "Son regina, son guerriera" (Morte di Semiramide)
Rossini: La Morte di Didone (Lyric scene)

Complete Operas

Bellini: I Puritani
(Nuova Era CD 6842/43)
live performance from Catania,1989 with William Matteuzzi, Paolo Washington, Christopher Robertson, conducted by Richard Bonynge

Bellini: La Sonnambula
(Nuova Era CD 6764/65)
live performance from Como, 1991 with Luca Canonici, Alessandro Verducci, conducted by Marcello Viotti

Delibes: Lakmé
(Legato Classics CD LCD-191-2)
live performance from New York, 1981 with Nicolai Gedda, Paul Plishka, conducted by Eve Queler

Donizetti: Adelia
(BMG, Agora RFCD 2029)
live performance from Genoa, 1998 with Stefano Antonucci, Octavio Arevalo, conducted by John Neschling

Donizetti: Elisabetta Al Castello di Kennilworth
(Fonit Cetra CD RFCD 2005)
live performance from Bergamo, 1989 with Denia Mazzola, Jozef Kundlak, Barry Anderson, conducted by Jan-Latham-Konig

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
(Fone CD 96 F 06)
live performance from Florence, 1996 with Jose Bros, Roberto Frontali, Carlo Colobara, conducted by Zubin Mehta

Space prohibits the indepth analysis that each of these recordings deserve but I will point out some specifics and leave it to readers to seek out the recordings that interest them.

If I had to choose only one Devia recording to best represent her voice and art I would unquestionably pick the Lugano Concert on Bongiovanni.  Of special note is the limpidity of her top register and the innate sensitivity she brings to such difficult pieces as Lakmé's famous Bell Song.  In that aria Devia's plangent timbre perfectly suits the context of the aria.  Her staccati have a big, chime-like quality that is aurally captivating and all three high Es that Devia takes are superb - especially the most difficult, final one which is easily held almost to the end of the postlude.  The virtuosity of that aria is offset by the long-breathed phrases of the arias from I Capuletti and Louise.  Both are ravishing examples of lyrical singing of the highest order.  Also wonderful are the two Mad Scenes - both very differently interpreted and with differing ornamental pattern structures.  Knowing the fickleness of the recording industry I do not know how long this CD will continue to be available.  Although full price (about $18-19) you should try and get a hold of a copy - it has singing that is timeless.

The album of "Arie di Baule" (Suitcase Arias) is also recommended and shows why Devia is considered one of the finest Rossini specialists today.  Most of the music is refreshingly obscure and the scena from Adlelaide di Borgogna shows why so much fuss was made after her initial 1984 performances of the role.  Dating from 1996 the singing is as limpid as that dating from a decade earlier.  One only hopes that other recital albums will appear in the near future.

The complete operas I listed above are all recommended.  Both the 1991 Como-based La Sonnambula and the Catania I Puritani highlight Devia's particular gifts.  Bellini has always suited Devia's pathos and lyricism.  Of the two my favorite remains the 1989 I Puritani from Catania under Richard Bonynge's baton.  This pastoral opera suits Devia to a tee.  As I mentioned before, in this performance Devia uses Dame Joan Sutherland's ornaments and they fit her voice beautifully.  Her easy, soaring top register has rarely been heard to greater advantage than in this performance.  Also, the generally placid temperament of Elvira perfectly suits Devia's expressive traits and legato singing.  There is also an Act I Polonaise of brilliance and virtuosity and a Mad Scene imaginatively ornamented and crowned with a superb top E flat.

Although less easy to find, the Legato Classics Lakmé is another for your "want list." The performance, revived and conducted by Eve Queler, took place in April of 1981, on Devia's 30th birthday and at the time caused quite a stir in New York musical circles.  Devia's round, vibrant timbre brings some unique colors to this role (as it does to her other French roles).  One hopes that perhaps someday the 1984 Verona Manon Lescaut by Auber will make it onto silver disc (another wonderful performance).  Although Lakmé has not featured prominently in Devia's stage repertoire it highlights her considerable lyrical attributes.  The aural combination of Devia and Gedda is elegance personified - and then, of course, there is the Bell Song.

Any of the Lucia recordings are excellent.  My personal preference happens to be the 1996 Fone recording conducted by Zubin Mehta which has one of her finest Mad Scenes on disc.  In reviewing the set for the magazine Gramophone, critic Alan Blyth stated"...it's an interpretation of the highest class on all accounts." The addition of a sympathetic Edgardo of Jose Bros and Roberto Frontali as Enrico does not hurt the opera's cause either.  Attractively packaged and performed it is a bonus to anyone's Lucia collection.  (Another performance dating from La Scala in 1994 with Vincenzo La Scola and Renato Bruson and conducted by Stefano Ranzani is also recommended.  On the Serenissima label (C 360.153-54) it too is in excellent sound and although not as complete as the Fone recording it also boasts a superb Mad Scene.  Either one would grace your shelves.

Both the Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth and Adelia are recomended for their obscurity as much as for the superb singing that Devia provides during the course of the operas.  The Castello di Kenilworth uses the Opera Rara edition and the pairing of Devia with Denia Mazzola is excellent.  Adelia is a more dramatic work and its music brings forth some finely-graded singing by Devia.  In both operas Devia shows herself to be a superb performer of the otto cento repertoire.  If you can find them, buy them.

If you have not gotten the idea by now, recordings of this soprano belong on your record shelves.  In purely vocal terms Mariella Devia remains one of the most satisfyingly consistent sopranos of any era.  I consider myself exceedingly fortunate that I was able to experience her art in the theatre as many times as I did.  It has certainly enriched my life.  (December, 2002)

For those readers interested in learning more about this artist I highly recommend the Mariella Devia Fan Page hosted by Rosario Genaro.  Just click on the link in the "Other Sites" section of my web site.  The Devia page is full of useful information and pictures.