Jodie Devos is sorely missed. Aged just thirty-five, she died on 16 June 2024. Wishing to perpetuate her memory and her art, we have decided to publish this boxed set containing all of the recordings she made for Alpha Classics over a period of ten years: six albums that bear witness to the exacting standards, sensitivity, eclecticism and curiosity of this unusual soprano who was loved by all. Also included is a concert she gave at the Gaume Festival in August 2017; this deeply moving programme reveals another side of Jodie, notably her love of American music and song, from Gershwin to Michel Legrand. All profits from the sale of this boxed set, which includes all the texts from the original albums, will be donated to the Jodie Devos Fund, created in 2025 to perpetuate the transmission and promotion of the operatic art that she held so dear.
The Quatuor Voce presents Poétiques de l’instant, a long-term project and a diptych of recordings that aim to combine two of the key works in the repertory of any string quartet – the masterpieces of Debussy and Ravel – with other pieces of music and new compositions. This first instalment focuses on Debussy’s Quartet and the Quatuor Voce has enlisted a young composer, Yves Balmer, for the works that revolve around it: he has arranged the Proses lyriques song cycle and has also composed a new piece, Fragments soulevés par le vent. To record this program, the quartet has chosen to perform alongside three exceptional artists, the soprano Jodie Devos, the flautist Juliette Hurel and the harpist Emmanuel Ceysson.
Offenbach Colorature / Devos, Campellone, Munich Radio Orchestra
Alpha
CD
$20.99Feb 08, 2019
Soprano Jodie Devos, who has signed with Alpha for several recordings, here pays homage to Offenbach, whose bicentenary of his birth is celebrated in 2019. This programme shows Offenbach’s fascination with the vocal fireworks of coloratura divas. This kind of ‘lyric coloratura’ or ‘soprano leggero’ voice runs like a thread through most of the composer’s oeuvre, from his first pieces for two or three soloists to those grand frescoes of his maturity, La Vie parisienne, Robinson Crusoe, and Orphee aux Enfers. The coloratura soprano also adorns Offenbach’s less frivolous operettas (such as Fantasio), as well as his only serious opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, in which the role of the doll (with only one aria, but what an aria!) is among the most famous in the entire French repertoire. Concocted collaboratively with Alexandre Dratwicki and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this recorded programme- tailor-made for Jodie Devos- presents innumerable rarities from Mesdames de la Halle, Boule-de-Neige, Un mari a la porte, Le Roi Carotte, Le Voyage dans la lune, and Vert-Vert. In the famous duet, Oiseaux dans la charmille, she is joined by up and coming mezzo-soprano Adele Charvet.
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REVIEW:
The main thing to say about Devos – and her thoroughly idiomatic partner-in-frolic, Laurent Campellone – is that she (and this is a huge compliment) delivers all that is required of her, and more, with the apparent ease of one who knows how important it is to conceal the difficulty. The real kicker with this album is the way in which number after number springs its surprises. The vocal pyrotechnics are artfully designed to make one’s jaw hit the floor.
With the rise of Romanticism, the topics of opera changed from the mythological fantasy of Baroque operas to the fairytale fantasy which graced the French stage long before Romanticism reached other European nations. Initiated by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this project is built like a universal fairytale, inspired by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, and others, as set to music by French composers of the Romantic period, alternating between famous composers such as Offenbach and Rossini and little known masters like Viardot, Silver, and Isouard. This imaginary opera was conceived and transcribed by Alexandre Dratwicki for piano quartet and two singers- a soprano and a mezzo, the roles of which are performed here by Jodie Devos and Caroline Meng.
On March 23, 1783, an important concert took place in Vienna, playing a considerable role for Mozart’s reputation in the imperial capital, where he had resided since 1781. It is obvious that Mozart wanted to be herad in both what he had composed prior to his move to Vienna, as well as I his more recent works. From the Salzburg repertoire, he borrowed the ‘Haffner’ Symphony. To this he added the long concertant movement for wind instruments from the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade. Here we also find two piano concertos, one from Salzburg and one which was composed likely for this specific occasion. Several arias are also included from his earlier operas. The Millenium Orchestra with Jodie Devos and Sebastian Wienand have painstakingly recorded this release to mimic this historic concert, so that the listener can rediscover this monumental night as if they were there.
Rameau: Zoroastre 1749 / Devos, Gens, Kossenko, Les Ambassadeurs
Alpha
CD
$39.99Oct 28, 2022
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) left two very different versions of his tragédie en musique Zoroastre: the first, in 1749, suffered from cabals and the work was withdrawn from the repertory. Rameau gave it a thoroughgoing revision in 1756. At this time, he was at the height of his powers. Melody, harmony, orchestration and choral writing no longer held any secrets for him. Zoroastre brought still further innovation. For the first time, he dispensed with a prologue, and turned the overture into a philosophical ‘program’, the struggle between day and night, between good and evil.
The 1749 version is entirely governed by avant-garde ideas; Zoroastre resembles Tamino in The Magic Flute, but two generations earlier. This disconcerted some of the audience: Zoroastre was a moral, social and philosophical opera. The 1749 version has never been revived in modern times. Alexis Kossenko takes up the challenge with zest, accompanied by an outstanding cast including Véronique Gens, Jodie Devos, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Mathias Vidal and Tassis Christoyannis.
REVIEW:
For listeners more used to English Baroque, this example of high French Baroque will require a big adjustment: every element – aria, duet, chorus, instrumental interlude – is short and thick with text; the feminine ending of each musical line reinforces the Gallic character of the whole.
The chorus and line-up of soloists is first-rate, with a suitably menacing Abramane (Tassis Christoyannis) and a witchy Érinice (Véronique Gens); with a gorgeously pure-toned Amélite (Jodie Devos), and an expressive and clarion-voiced Zoroastre (Reinoud van Mechelen). The instrumental numbers (notably the sarabands) are beautifully done, with the weather – lashings of thunder and lightning – forcefully dramatised throughout.
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater and Haydn: Symphony no. 49 / Devos, Charvet, Chauvin, La Concert de la Loge
Alpha
CD
$20.99Feb 11, 2022
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has enjoyed enormous fame ever since the eighteenth century – Jean-Jacques Rousseau called its first movement ‘the most perfect and touching that has ever come from the pen of any composer’. There were many arrangements of the work, by Bach among others. It was performed more than eighty times at the Concert Spirituel in Paris between 1753 and 1790, in multiple versions, probably also with the participation of a choir.
After consulting several manuscripts and editions held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Julien Chauvin has chosen to record it with soprano and mezzo soloists (the equivalent of the French dessus and bas-dessus) and a two-part children’s choir: ‘The choir can play a real role in the narration of so powerful and poignant a text’, he says. This recording teams two emblematic singers of the Alpha label with the excellent Maîtrise de Radio France, of which Adèle was a member as a girl. To complement the Neapolitan masterpiece, we have a ‘sacred’ symphony by Haydn, "La Passione," probably written for Good Friday and in the same key as the Stabat.
Boesmans: On purge bébé! Opera in One Act / Bou, Devos, Akiki, La Monnaie S.O.
Fuga Libera
CD
$20.99Sep 08, 2023
Composer Philippe Boesmans writes: "I’d read On purge bébé! even before I composed Pinocchio. I said to myself: ‘This is a wonderful play... but it’s impossible to turn it into an opera’. And if I say something like that, it means that I’m going to do it — it’s like I’m setting myself a kind of challenge! I liked a lot of things in this play. It’s rather malicious, as it presents an image of a smug, pretentious, and uneducated petty bourgeoisie and their complete dishonesty. I don’t think anyone has ever done an opera based one of Feydeau’s plays — at least, not that I know of. People don’t think of turning Feydeau into an opera..."
