“This is the Everest of opera,” the soprano Renata Scotto, a brilliant, controversial Norma in the 1980s, said in a recent interview. “You want to climb the mountain. You know you are supposed to climb the mountain. But it is so difficult.”
Go to NYTimes, Sept 2017, for a full and fascinating account by James Jorden of why this Everest role is so difficult. Here's my summary.
Obviously, the role, like any Bellini lead, requires brilliant “bel canto” technique - but here that technique is critical to the drama. Jorden writes, 'The goal of bel canto is to perfect the elaborate vocal gestures all over the role: trills, scales, arpeggios and leaps. (These are the roller-coaster fireworks you might hear when you think of opera. They’re also the way Norma, a druid high priestess, demonstrates her power.).'
But it’s not just raw agility: Norma needs musicality, 'the art of transforming mere notes, and a lot of them, into moving music.' Add the role demands of complex acting of a complex character - Norma is a Druid warrior priestess but also, secretly, and inconsistently, a mother and a wife. And then there is the need for stamina - this is arguably the most demanding of all soprano roles, and the final scene the most demanding. But also the diva must give to her portrayal what the Italians call “anima,” 'which literally means “soul” or “spirit.”'
Greek-American soprano Maria Callas sang Norma in 89 stage performances. Listen to a rare video recording of Callas in the final scene here.
Birth of an opera
Bellini was at his peak, La Sonnambula (March 1831) a great success. He had contracts for La Scala (December 1831) and La Fenice the next year. Milan won Norma, the libretto created by Felice Romani based on a play called Norma, ou L'infanticide (Norma, or The Infanticide) by Alexandre Soumet. Norma was completed by about the end of November. Romani called it "the most beautiful rose in the garland" of all his work with Bellini. Lots more detail here.
And for those who like to read libretti, here is Romani's work, in English translation. Take it from Wagner, who conducted a performance in 1837, and loved that libretto. 'Here, where the poem rises to the tragic height of the ancient Greeks, this kind of form, which Bellini has certainly ennobled, serves only to increase the solemn and imposing character of the whole; all the phases of passion, which are rendered in so peculiarly clear a light by his art of song, are thereby made to rest upon a majestic soil and ground, above which they do not vaguely flutter about, but resolve themselves into a grand and manifest picture.' It's an impressive libretto!
The opera was coolly received on the first night, but rapidly won popularity as bel canto was revived in the 20th century. And it became the classic display for the bel canto diva.
The story
This is a vestal virgin story with a difference, and it moves fast. Set in ancient Gaul, it tells of the Druid priestess Norma, secretly the lover of the proconsul Pollione, oppressor of her people, and secretly mother of two children by him.
As with Bellini's earlier version of the Romeo and Juliet tale, much is packed into a short time span,
the opera opening on a drama already underway. There's no gentle introduction to a romantic love story - that's all behind us. Romance is in the past, the opera is about the violent consequences of illegitimate love. We start with Pollione confessing to his friend that he doesn't love her any more because he's in love with her novice, Adalgisa. In two acts, these impossible conflicts unfold and devour them both.
And here is a very detailed synopsis of Act 1 as it is expressed via Bellini's music, illustrated by extracts from Joan Sutherland's 1978 portrayal of Norma.
Our productions
We will show and compare two very famous productions, with formidable casts. But this is the opera where the focus is on the diva - and we have two from the top. Here are links to their achievements - (and interesting comparisons with Callas).
Monserrat Caballé
That amazing voice, fabulous personality, famous sense of humour, ever Spanish ! She took on the Norma role late in a glittering career. (She also sang the mezzo role of Adalgisa with Sutherland as Norma and Pavarotti as their Roman lover).
'One of the most exciting singers on the opera stage in the final four decades of the 20th century, Montserrat Caballé, who has died aged 85, was a throwback to an earlier generation of divas. She blithely ignored the new hegemony that made conductors and directors, rather than singers, the dominant figures in opera, confident that she was unsurpassed in vocal refulgence and bel canto technique.'
And the comparison? 'Often compared with Maria Callas, she lacked her predecessor’s explosive intensity of utterance and powerful acting, but offered instead sublime tone and effortless technique.'
Our production is a famous one from 1974 with Jon Vickers as Pollione and Josephine Veasey as Adalgisa.
Here's the final scene with their voices merging into a liquid Bellini chorus.
Edita Gruberová
She was the bel canto 'prima donna assoluta' of our time. 'No modern lyric-coloratura soprano had so much high-quality vocal mileage as Edita Gruberová,' concluded her 2021 Gramophone obituary. and it went on:
'Gruberová was in many ways the polar opposite of Callas, achieving dramatic credibility through lighter vocal means, though Gramophone’s John Steane proclaimed her portrayal of Bellini’s Norma, in her recording on Nightingale Classics, to be the equal of Callas with the added ‘extraordinary radiance of her voice’ (9/05).
To that, Patrick O’Connor added (6/07) that she was "the greatest Norma of today" in the later Bavarian State Opera DVD of Norma, recorded in 2006 and released by Deutsche Grammophon. "Her singing ... brings a lifetime's experience of singing bel canto opera and caresses Bellini's vocal lines with many subtle touches."
In the DVD extra interview, she says singing Bellini requires great calm. 'It's hard to fill the simplicity of the music with life and truth'
Mairi Nicholson's tribute is still on the ABC site, including this comment.
Importantly too she restored the interpretative value of coloratura singing by investing every note of the high flying, virtuoso roles she sang with meaning. She knew opera fans were swept up in the sheer pyrotechnics of a coloratura role but “that was the easy part,” she said. “The hard part is conveying emotion through the technical feats. Even the last high note must say something. This is part of the character. Then it becomes interesting. Otherwise, it’s nonsense singing.”
It is that 'greatest Norma' 2006 production that we'll watch. It was her first performance of the role.
'Preview? Here's her 'Casta Diva'.
Lyn, 15 Nov 23.