After beginning her career as a lyric coloratura soprano, in the finale part of it she also enjoyed considerable success with some of the most dramatic roles in the bel canto repertoire.

[3] On the international scene, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera from 1979 to 1994 as Lucia, Gilda, Nannetta, Despina and Konstanze,[4] and at Carnegie Hall as Lakmé, in 1979, and later as Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini, Giulietta, Elvira in I puritani and Adelia.

She is also admired for her Mozart performances in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Idomeneo.

[8] From then on she included the role of Norma in her usual repertoire along with the "Three Donizetti Queens", Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena and Elisabetta from Roberto Devereux, which she had debuted between 2006 and 2011,[9] and with Lucrezia Borgia, first performed in 2001.

[11] Devia bid farewell to the opera stage in May 2018 with three performances of Norma at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice,[12] where she was also awarded the 'Premio Una vita nella musica 2018', so joining "such prestigious figures as Daniel Barenboim, Ruggero Raimondi, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Karl Böhm, Carlo Maria Giulini, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Carlo Bergonzi, among others to have received the prestigious award".