Jodie Devos - Bizet: LA JOLIE FILLE DE PERTH, Echo viens sur l'air embaumé, 2021 High F

THE SONGBIRD: Belgian soprano Jodie Devos (1988 - 2024) studied at the Institut de Musique in Namur and then attained a Masters degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London (studying with Lillian Watson). She did well in several voice competitions and then joined the Paris Opera-Comique in 2014 appearing as Adele. She made her debut at La Monnaie in Brussels as Queen of the Night in 2018, a role she also sang in Caen, Dijon, Limoges, and Paris. Other roles included Ophelie, Gilda, Philine, and Adina. Devos died of cancer on June 16, 2024 at the age of 35.

THE MUSIC: One of Bizet's eight operas is “La Jolie Fille de Perth” which premiered in Paris in 1867, and is rarely performed. The title role, Catherine, was written for the world famous soprano Christine Nilsson (in 1883 she was Marguerite in "Faust" at the inauguration of the Metropolitan in New York), but due to delays in production, she was replaced by Jeanne Devries, a young soprano from New Orleans. The work is a sentimental melodrama and includes one of the shortest mad scenes ever written. Catherine's haunting ballade "Echo viens" comes at the end of the work after various plot confusions. The aria builds off a simple folk-like tune into ever widening leaps to high suspensions -- illustrating Catherine's state of mind (and the opportunity to insert a short High F near the end.)

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