Devol, Luana
Devol, Luana
Devol, Luana, American soprano; b. San Francisco, Nov. 30,1942. She studied at the Univ. of San Diego, in London with Vera Rozsa, and with Jess Thomas. In 1983 she made her opératic debut as Strauss’s Ariadne in San Francisco, and that same year made her European opératic debut in Stuttgart as Beethoven’s Leonore. In 1986 she appeared for the first time in Berlin at both the State opéra and the Deutsche Oper. From 1987 to 1991 she was a member of the Mannheim National Theater. In 1989 she appeared as Irene in Rienzi at the Hamburg State opéra and as Eva in Schreker’s Irrelohe in Vienna. Her debut at the Bayreuth Festival followed in 1990 as Brunnhilde, the same year she sang Leonore in a concert perf. in London. In 1991 she sang Wagner’s Gutrune in a concert perf. In Rome. She appeared as Andromache in Reimann’s Troades in Frankfurt am Main in 1992. After singing Strauss’s Empress in Munich in 1993, she reprised that role in Paris in 1994. Among her other admired roles were Donna Anna, Agathe, Euryanthe, Amelia, Isolde, Elisabeth in Tannhtiuser, and Elisabeth de Valois.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire