Mariella Devia is an Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

, well known for performing many roles in the bel canto

Bel canto

Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...

 repertoire.

Born in Chiusavecchia

Chiusavecchia

Chiusavecchia is a comune in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about 90 km southwest of Genoa and about 10 km northwest of Imperia...

, Devia trained at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...

 in Rome with Iolanda Magnoni. She made her stage debut in Treviso

Treviso

Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...

, as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....

, in 1973, and quickly sang throughout Italy, making her debut at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 in 1987, as Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi

I Capuleti e i Montecchi

I Capuleti e i Montecchi is an Italian opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini.The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo. This was based on Italian sources rather than taken directly from Shakespeare...

.

On the international scene, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

, as Lucia, and Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, as Lakmé, in 1979, and made her debut
at the Paris Opera

Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...

 and the Aix-en-Provence Festival

Aix-en-Provence Festival

The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...

 in 1987, and at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

 in London, in 1988.

She was a regular at the Pesaro Festival and at the Festival della Valle d'Itria

Festival della Valle d'Itria

The Festival della Valle d’Itria is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially constructed stage in the outdoor courtyard of the...

 in Martina Franca

Martina Franca

Martina Franca is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, Apulia , Italy. It is the second most populated city of the province after Taranto....

, where she won great acclaim in the exhumation of long neglected operas by Rossini, Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

, Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

 and other bel canto composers. She is also admired in Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 operas, especially as Constanze in Abduction from the Seraglio, as well as Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Gilda and Violetta.

Repertory

• Auber: Manon Lescaut - Manon
• Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda - Beatrice; I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Giulietta; Il Pirata - Imogene; I Puritani - Elvira; La Sonnambula - Amina
• Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini - Teresa
• Bizet: Les Pecheurs des Perles - Leila
• Cherubini: Lodoïska - Lodoïska
• Cimarosa: Il Matrimonio Segreto - Elisabetta
• Donizetti: Adelia - Adelia; Anna Bolena - Anna; Don Pasquale - Norina; Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth - Elisabetta; L'Elisir d'Amore - Adina; La Fille du Regiment - Marie; Linda di Chamounix - Linda; Lucrezia Borgia - Lucrezia; Lucia di Lammermoor - Lucia; Maria Stuarda - Maria; Marino Faliero - Elena; Parisina - Parisina
• Delibes: Lakmé - Lakmé
• Gounod: Faust - Marguerite; Roméo et Juliette - Juliette
• Mozart: Cosí fan tutte - Despina and Fiordiligi; Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Kostanze; Don Giovanni - Donna Anna; Idomeneo - Ilia and Elettra; Le Nozze di Figaro - Contessa; Die Zauberflöte - Pamina and Königin der Nacht
• Puccini: Gianni Schicchi - Lauretta
• Rossini: Adelaide di Borgogna - Adelaide; Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Rosina; Le Comte Ory - Adele; Mosè - Anaide; Mosè in Egitto - Elcia; Otello - Desdemona; Semiramide - Semiramide; Il Signor Bruschino - Sofia; Tancredi - Amenaide; Il Turco in Italia - Fiorilla; Zelmira - Zelmira
• Rota: Cappello di Paglia di Firenze - Elena
• Satie: Geneviève de Brabant - Genèvieve
• Verdi: Falstaff - Nannetta; Giovanna D'Arco - Giovanna; Rigoletto - Gilda; La Traviata - Violetta