Tosca / Oxford Opera Company
“Marlena Devoe embodied Tosca’s endearing jealousy with a balance of wilfulness and vulnerability. She employed gorgeous portamentos and shimmering top notes and, in the final duet with Sam Furness, their voices found a total alignment of emotional intent, progressing from a sweet tenderness to swelling desire.”
Opera
“Marlena Devoe’s dramatic soprano soars effortlessly to the heights, equally at home in moments of greatest passion and those of quiet intimacy.”
Stage Talk Magazine
“Marlena Devoe delivered a compelling performance as Tosca, balancing vulnerability with a fierce determination. Her vocal agility and emotional depth made for a captivating portrayal of the opera’s tragic heroine.”
A Young(ish) Perspective
Mimì: La bohème / Theater Münster 2024
“Marlena Devoe’s warm and radiant integrity shines through her voice. She brings a bright timbre to Mimì, with shimmering high notes.”
Crescendi
“Marlena Devoe brings a powerful voice to Mimì, fully responsive to the expressive nuances required.”
Die Glocke
“Musically, the performance was a success. This was especially true of Marlena Devoe’s Mimì. We particularly liked her legato and her top notes soared effortlessly over chorus and orchestra.”
Online Merker
Melissa: Princess Ida / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment 2023
“Among the strong women, diction and notes combined to perfection in Marlena Devoe’s Melissa.”
The Arts Desk
Purea: Star Navigator / New Zealand Opera 2022
“…the role of Purea is a strong vehicle for Marlena Devoe’s rich, honeyed tones.”
iStuff
Purea: Star Navigator / New Zealand Opera 2022
“…beautifully sung by soprano Marlena Devoe…”
Theatre Review
Adina: L’elisir d’amore / Verbier Festival
“Marlena Devoe looked almost Ava-Gardner-like as Adina and produced a linear, seraphic sound that went excitingly into overdrive above the stave.”
Opera
Lucia di Lammermoor / Auckland Opera Studio
“Devoe is fresh from winning the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Awards in Sydney and she certainly demonstrated her natural aptitude for bel canto style here. “Regnaza nel silenzio” showed off her ability to sculpt a long phrase and the ensuing cabaletta gave us some nigh-perfect passagework. Devoe’s is a pleasing lyric soprano that gains in amplitude as it gets higher; the final high phrases of “Quando rapita” were as magnificently gleaming and immaculately poised as any I’ve heard…“
Bachtrack
“Marlena Devoe, fearless in her coloratura, was an affecting Lucia.”
New Zealand Herald
Mimì: La bohème / Lyric Opera, Dublin
“Samoan-born Marlena Devoe presents the fragile figure of the consumptive heroine with positive conviction. Her clear soprano range may be delicately expressive but it also shows a depth of purpose when need be.”
Irish Independent
“The team of admirable young singers was headed by the excellent Marlena Devoe, a New Zealand winner of the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award. She proved a most appealing Mimì…”
Opera
Mimi: La bohème / New Zealand Opera
“Devoe’s Mimì was sweet and appealing in character but with a surprisingly large and rich voice that luxuriated in Puccini’s soaring vocal lines. There was an almost-dramatic soprano richness, particularly in the higher register, to the extent that her great third-act plea to Marcello had an extra vivid tragic effect. Some veristic sobs and dives into chest register in this scene made Mimì a more compelling, rounded character than many others do. The many remembrances of phrases past that pervade the final act were taken with a ravishingly soft thread of tone as death approached.”
Bachtrack
”Thomas Atkins and Marlena Devoe are memorable as the doomed Rodolfo and Mimi, from their first heart-stopping encounter to Devoe’s moving death scene.“
New Zealand Herald
“Marlena Devoe’s Mimì was a rich and developed character and her singing was moving and, equally importantly, her acting was convincing.”
Radio New Zealand
Mimì: La bohème / Oxford Opera
“As Mimì, New Zealand-born Samoan Marlena Devoe was completely captivating.”
Oxford Daily Info
“Marlena Devoe, an award-winning soprano from New Zealand, was utterly captivating as Mimì, her voice effortlessly strong, sweet and expressive, and she had exactly the right air of appealing vulnerability.”
Ox in a Box
“…flawlessly and affectingly delivered.”
Oxford Mail
Mimì: La bohème / Tait Winter Prom
“Her rich melodic tone, never strained, always fluid and focussed, wrapped its way around the hearts and ears of an attentive audience.”
Limelight
Lauretta: Gianni Schicchi / Singapore Lyric Opera
“…Marlena Devoe, whose ‘O mio babbino caro’ was deliciously heartfelt and luscious.”
Flying Inkpot
Violetta: La traviata / Clonter Opera
“The key figure, of course, is Violetta, and in Marlena Devoe we have a real star. The show is worth seeing for her alone. Born in New Zealand, the Samoan soprano is absolutely spellbinding from her first entrance, when she advances slowly towards us, like a beautiful model on a walkway. As she comes to a halt, various men, one by one, approach and touch her. She is, after all, a sexy courtesan. Devoe has a real stage presence and a gloriously soaring voice. She seems to deal with the high register and coloratura passages of the heartwarming arias effortlessly and confidently. She is also a consummate “actor, covering the range from flirtatious to despairing. Compelling and convincing.”
Manchester Theatre Awards
