It was quite a shock when on Sunday, June 16, 2024 around midday the email arrived from the artists' agency Intermezzo: DÉCÈS DE LA SOPRANO BELGE JODIE DEVOS.
I had to look carefully at what I was reading. This young beautiful soprano deceased? It gave me the chills! I was fortunate to experience Jodie Devos live several times, but I was looking forward to hearing her many more times in virtuosic roles for high soprano. It was simply wonderful to hear her in these parts, to admire her suppleness. Moreover, she acted with a naturalness that made her interpretations lifelike. What a loss, not only for Belgian opera, but certainly also for international opera life. And what a loss it must be for her family and friends, because her charm was certainly not limited to the theater!
I saw her in the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Mignon and in Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas and in Lakmé by Leo Delibes. Those are precisely roles in lesser-known repertoire, as that was certainly a motivation for her as an artist: to draw attention to what doesn't directly make the big poster, but deserves to! In December 2023, barely half a year ago, I saw her for the last time on stage in the Opéra Comique in Paris. This theater is devoted to giving nineteenth-century French opera the attention it deserves. She sang there La Princesse Elsbeth in Fantasio by Jacques Offenbach, in which the princess surprisingly and above all lovingly unmasks the jester Fantasio! A sparkling role, full of joie de vivre, almost cynical in light of what has now happened to Jodie Devos in real life! Voilà, toute la ville en fête, she sang in that opera, but also cachons l'ennui de mon âme, two fragments that can also be found on the wonderful cd Offenbach colorature! (Alpha classics)
Let me, as a tribute, end with two quotes from reviews I wrote for KC about performances in the ORW: the first about Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas in February 2023: Jodie Devos is -as was to be expected - his female counterpart (i.e. of Lionel Lhote -June 2024). Ophélie appears as purity itself, also playing with white and light colors in her clothing. Her soprano voice is silky-soft but can also handle the coloraturas of the bel canto-inspired mad scene without problems. She also sings the highest notes as pure magic.
A second quote from the review of Mignon by Ambroise Thomas (April 2022): Jodie Devos reveals herself as the self-confident and jealous actress-diva. The conviction of her performance finds a parallel in her vocal art: she sings with a phenomenal graceful voice that effortlessly reaches the highest regions and that culminates in her great coloratura aria in the third act "Je suis Titania la blonde", the most well-known fragment from the opera. Without any hesitation, the coloraturas flow while Jodie Devos establishes her triumphant character.
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