Fides Devries by Benque

FIDES DEVRIES
American Soprano

Fidès was born in New Orleans on 22 April 1852, and died in 1941, and was a soprano who studied under Duprez. She made her debut as Rose-de-Mai in Le val d'Andorre at the Théâtre Lyrique in October 1868. After a couple of seasons at La Monnaie in Brussels, she joined the Paris Opera in 1871, where her repertoire included Marguerite in Faust, Ophélie in Hamlet, Isabelle in Robert le diable, Agathe in Le Freischutz, Inès and Sélika in L’Africaine, Elvira in Don Juan, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell and Eudoxie in La Juive.

In February 1873 Devriès took the solo soprano part in Beethoven’s Choral Symphony with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, along with an aria from Don Giovanni
She interrupted her career from April 1874 to 1883, after which she appeared at the Théâtre-Italien directed by Victor Maurel, singing in Simon Boccanegra and Hérodiade. Back at the Opéra, after touring to Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Lisbon and Holland, she created the role of Chimène in the premiere of Le Cid on 30 November 1885. Her final major appearance was as Elsa in the French premiere of Lohengrin on 3 May 1887, before retiring from the stage in 1889