# The preternaturally ageless voice of Devia



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is her retiring from opera singing Norma at age 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She sounds 35!!!!!!!


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I wouldn't call it "ageless". A beautiful voice for sure, but not an ageless voice. Nonetheless, this should be worth a look.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I wouldn't call it "ageless". A beautiful voice for sure, but not an ageless voice. Nonetheless, this should be worth a look.


I have to confess I am not that familiar with her career and haven't heard her from earlier in her career.... BUT she doesn't sound 70 by any stretch of the imagination.


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## Madiel (Apr 25, 2018)

I have had the pleasure to attend her opera performances quite a few times, defining experiences.
I am not surprised that she has aged so well - though Norma isn't the work more suited to her means and, well, she doesn't sound as good as she did twenty years ago - reading her interviews and her working habits you realize that she loved her art and she was totally committed to it, most people would change their understanding of the word "sacrifice" should they know what is needed to have a career like Devia.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I have to confess I am not that familiar with her career and haven't heard her from earlier in her career.... BUT she doesn't sound 70 by any stretch of the imagination.


to me she sounds 50-ish, but yeah, not 70.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Speaking of ageless voices, the strong and stalwart Magda Olivero was doing standing ovations at the Met at the age of 65 in Tosca.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I heard Price in concert at 70. She sounded better in person than she did in a recording of a similar concert on that tour. I am always impressed with singers with great longevity. Both Nilsson and Sutherland had some great performances late in their careers, but 70 is an age you rarely run into in performers of operas. My sister, the opera singer/teacher, said that the voice itself if taken care of has a longer life than your breath support, which suffers as you age.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I heard Price in concert at 70. She sounded better in person than she did in a recording of a similar concert on that tour. I am always impressed with singers with great longevity. Both Nilsson and Sutherland had some great performances late in their careers, but 70 is an age you rarely run into in performers of operas. My sister, the opera singer/teacher, said that the voice itself if taken care of has a longer life than your breath support, which suffers as you age.


her voice in her older years developed this "black matriarch who lived through sharecropping" quality to it. much edgier, better for conveying grit, anguish, resilience.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Mariella Devia is awesome. I first experienced her in this opera (here in full with English subtitles) and love it.





Check out her singing the trumpet call. At least I call it a trumpet call and I think that is what Donizetti intended it to sound like. I think only one other singer gets the trumpet call so good (Sutherland, IIRC). With others it is hardly recognizable as a trumpet call.


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