Sunday, February 14, 2021

Diva Devieilhe

I have fallen in love. And how apt with it being Jour St Valentin as we call it here. Luckily so has the Magnificent M. The object of our affection is the voice of a soprano, Sabine Devieilhe. She is breaking through into the top ranks of opera singers. She is a collaratura soprano and has recordings of the main collaratura arias but, and this is more impressive, she is performing the roles in the top opera houses. The Magic Flute and Lakme at Vienna Stattsopera, The Royal Opera, Paris Opera. She has marvellous control of the top notes and can confidently sing them even at the quietest volume. The only other singer I have heard who could do that as well as her was a very young Montserrat Caballe. She is young, only 35 which means she has another 10 to 15 years until she hits her best if she follows the normal route.

But for all the collaratura stuff it was an aria we found on YouTube that sealed the deal, link below. Neither of us particularly like Baroque Opera, we find it "thin". But not only does she make us like the aria, she has made us want to see the opera, and we haven't even heard of it. Whether it is that opera or not we want to see her as soon as we are able to.

Handel: "Tu del Ciel ministro eletto" - Sabine Devieilhe

6 comments:

Masher said...

Not heard of this young lady, but I'm sure she'll go far.
A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon Belle Voci and found myself downloading from Amazon just minutes later.

kennamatic said...

Ah! Were they the ones who were on The Voice last year, or maybe the year before. They would have been on Wills Team as he always grabs an opera act. If so, glad they are still making a fist of it. I know the purists won't like it but anything that gets opera listened to is a good thing. Unless it's Opera Barbie, known to other as Katherine Jenkins.

Masher said...

Never understood the vitriol aimed at KJ - she's a good looking lass who has a fantastic voice, yet she has lots of haters. Frank Skinner has publicly denounced her on his radio show many times. What am I missing here?

kennamatic said...

I can only answer from the point of those in the opera world. She claims to be an opera singer. She isn't, she has never sung an opera. She sings the odd aria, but in fact she is a chanteuse. Nothing wrong with being a chanteuse, but be proud of what you are and don't try to claim what you are not. We would never claim to be opera singers because although we have sung entire operas it has been in the chorus. We might say to someone who isn't in the know that we were but even then we have always claimed just to be in the chorus. (I did in fact sing the role of Paris in Romeo & Juliet so could list myself as an opera singer if I wanted to make a fool of myself in those circles). It may seem like pedantry but the world of opera has a very rigid hierarchy, and despite what people may think, it works rather well.

Brennig said...

Sabine Devieilhe gets the occasional outing on Scala. Or is it Classic FM? They all blur into one in these times of lockdown. But I've definitely heard her work on the radio.

Masher said...

Ahh, OK. I see.
Of course, they all fade in comparison to the greatest opera singer of them all: that bloke off the Go Compare adverts.