Opera Singer, Actress. A mezzo soprano, she is remembered for performing leading roles at the Opera-Comique as well as for her stage and film appearances that stretched over eight decades. Born Marie-Anne Lambert to a distinguished family, she was a pretty girl who suffered the first of her several failed marriages at 14; after gaining some vocal training, she began appearing on the Parisian Cabaret scene as well as at the Opera-Comique where her roles included Charlotte of Massenet's "Werther", Cio-Cio-San's maid Suzuki in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a servant from Lysenko's "Tarus Bulba", and the title leads of Jacques Offenbach's "La Belle Helene" and Ambrose Thomas "Mignon". Deva had a major hit as Laya in Paul Abraham's operetta "Fleurs de Hawaii" and was heard in a number of other operettas, most of them now forgotten, including "La femme nue", "Le Roi Bossu", and Franz Lehar's "Frasquita". Making a move which has been copied by numerous modern female performers, in 1933 she marketed a fragrance called Deva-Dassy Perfume; she remained popular as a Cabaret artist, made at least two documented film appearances in the 1946 "Faut ce qu'il faut" and 1956's "Ces sacrees vacances", and in 2003 was heard one last time when a recording of the aria "Connais-tu le pays" from "Mignon" was used on the soundtrack of "Spy sorge". At her death from the effects of far advanced age a number of her recordings were preserved on CD.
Opera Singer, Actress. A mezzo soprano, she is remembered for performing leading roles at the Opera-Comique as well as for her stage and film appearances that stretched over eight decades. Born Marie-Anne Lambert to a distinguished family, she was a pretty girl who suffered the first of her several failed marriages at 14; after gaining some vocal training, she began appearing on the Parisian Cabaret scene as well as at the Opera-Comique where her roles included Charlotte of Massenet's "Werther", Cio-Cio-San's maid Suzuki in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a servant from Lysenko's "Tarus Bulba", and the title leads of Jacques Offenbach's "La Belle Helene" and Ambrose Thomas "Mignon". Deva had a major hit as Laya in Paul Abraham's operetta "Fleurs de Hawaii" and was heard in a number of other operettas, most of them now forgotten, including "La femme nue", "Le Roi Bossu", and Franz Lehar's "Frasquita". Making a move which has been copied by numerous modern female performers, in 1933 she marketed a fragrance called Deva-Dassy Perfume; she remained popular as a Cabaret artist, made at least two documented film appearances in the 1946 "Faut ce qu'il faut" and 1956's "Ces sacrees vacances", and in 2003 was heard one last time when a recording of the aria "Connais-tu le pays" from "Mignon" was used on the soundtrack of "Spy sorge". At her death from the effects of far advanced age a number of her recordings were preserved on CD.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
Advertisement
See more Dassy memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
