Sabine Devieilhe

Soprano Sabine Devieilhe (de-vi-EL-a approximates it) became a fast-rising star in the 2010s, with charisma and a versatile voice that drew comparisons to vocal superstar Natalie Dessay. Her range of roles has stretched from the Baroque to contemporary works, and she has appeared widely with both historically oriented performers and traditional musicians. Devieilhe was born in Ifs, in France’s Normandy region, on December 12, 1985. Her parents, special education teachers, were not musical, but she showed talent at a local music school and enrolled at the Caen Conservatory at 12. Devieilhe studied cello at first, but voice teachers induced her to study singing as well. At the University of Rennes, she also studied musicology and ethnomusicology and performed in the choir in several local opera productions. In 2008, she entered the Paris Conservatory as a singer, winning the school’s top prize and graduating in 2011. In 2010, she made her recording debut as a member of the ensemble Les Cris de Paris, appearing on its album Encores. Her solo debut came the following year on the Glossa label with the album Gustave Charpentier: Music for the Prix de Rome. It didn’t take long for her career to blossom, both on stage and, more unusually for a singer so early in her career, on major-label recordings. Devieilhe was signed to the Erato label in 2013, and in addition to operatic appearances, she has made several innovative and highly successful recital albums. Devieilhe sang the title role in Delibes’ Lakmé at the Montpellier Opera, reprising the role in 2014 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Another major early role was that of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in 2013 at the Opéra National de Lyon, again repeating the role in Paris at the Opéra National. She has also performed the role of Amina in Bellini’s La sonnambula several times. Devieilhe won the Lyric Artist Revelation award at the annual Victoires de la musique classique ceremony in 2013 and followed it up in 2015 with a Lyric Artist of the Year nod. In 2015, she released Mozart: The Weber Sisters, highlighting music written by Mozart for Aloysia and Constanze Weber. In 2018, she joined Lea Desandre for an album of duo Italian cantatas by Handel. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019, performing a program of French songs, and she recorded an album's worth of them in 2020 with pianist Alexandre Tharaud. Devieilhe’s recording career intensified in the early 2020s, with three albums released in 2021 alone. She was heard on Erato in two operas, Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87, and Rameau’s Achante et Céphise, as well as in a Bach and Handel recital with the early music ensemble Pygmalion. In 2022, Devieilhe sang the soprano part in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major with the historical performance group Les Siècles, and she returned in 2024 on Erato with a recital of songs by Mozart and Richard Strauss, accompanied by pianist Mathieu Pordoy. By that time, her recording catalog comprised some 50 items. The asteroid 33346 Sabinedevieilhe is named for her. ~ James Manheim