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Norma (opera)

Norma (Italian: [ˈnɔrma]) is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma, ou L'infanticide (Norma, or The Infanticide) by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831.

Norma
Opera by Vincenzo Bellini
Domenico Donzelli, Giuditta Pasta,
and Giulia Grisi (original cast)
LibrettistFelice Romani
LanguageItalian
Based onAlexandre Soumet's play Norma, ou L'infanticide
Premiere
26 December 1831 (1831-12-26)

The opera is regarded as a leading example of the bel canto genre, and the soprano prayer "Casta diva" in Act 1 is a famous piece. Among the well known singers of Norma of the first half of the 20th century was Rosa Ponselle who played the role in New York and London. Notable exponents of the title role in the post-war period have been Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballé.

Composition history edit

 
Librettist Felice Romani
 
Giuditta Pasta, for whom the role of Norma was created

Crivelli and Company were managing both La Scala and La Fenice in Venice, and as a result, in April–May 1830 Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with them for two operas, one at each theatre. The opera for December 1831 at La Scala became Norma, while the one for the 1832 Carnival season at La Fenice became Beatrice di Tenda.[1]

With Bellini's La sonnambula successfully staged in March 1831 and Giuditta Pasta having demonstrated her extensive vocal and dramatic ranges in creating the role of Amina, the Swiss village maiden, she had been engaged by La Scala for her debut during the following season. Bellini and Romani then began to consider the subject of the coming autumn's opera. By the summer, they had decided to base it on Alexandre Soumet's play which was being performed in Paris at around that time and which Pasta would have seen.

For the forthcoming autumn/winter season, La Scala had engaged Giulia Grisi (the sister of Giuditta Grisi) and the well-known tenor Domenico Donzelli, who had made a name for himself with Rossini roles, especially that of Otello. They would fill the roles of Adalgisa and Pollione. Donzelli provided Bellini with precise details of his vocal capabilities which were confirmed by a report which the Neapolitan composer Saverio Mercadante also provided. By the end of August it appears that Romani had completed a considerable amount of the libretto, enough at least to allow Bellini to begin work, which he certainly did in the first weeks of September as the verses were supplied.[2] He reported in a letter to Pasta on 1 September:

I hope that you will find this subject to your liking. Romani believes it to be very effective, and precisely because of the all-inclusive character for you, which is that of Norma. He will manipulate the situations so that they will not resemble other subjects at all, and he will retouch, even change, the characters to produce more effect, if need be.[3]

Norma was completed by about the end of November. While, for Romani, it became "the most beautiful rose in the garland" of all his work with Bellini,[4] it was not achieved without some struggles. Bellini, now at the height of his powers, was very demanding of his librettist and required many re-writes before he was satisfied enough to set it to music.[5]

Performance history edit

 
Poster advertising the 1831 premiere
 
Domenico Donzelli sang Pollione
 
Giulia Grisi sang Adalgisa
 
Vincenzo Negrini sang Oroveso

Premiere performances edit

After rehearsals began on 5 December, Pasta balked at singing the "Casta diva" in act 1, now one of the most famous arias of the nineteenth century. She felt that it was "ill adapted to her vocal abilities",[6] but Bellini was able to persuade her to keep trying for a week, after which she adapted to it and confessed her earlier error.[7] At the opening night, the opera was received with what Weinstock describes as "chill indifference".[8] To his friend Francesco Florimo, on the night of the premiere, Bellini wrote "Fiasco! Fiasco! Solemn fiasco!" and proceeded to tell him of the indifference of the audience and how it affected him.[9]

In addition, in a letter to his uncle on 28 December, Bellini tried to explain the reasons for the reactions. As other commentators have also noted, some problems were innate to the structure and content of the opera, while others were external to it. Bellini discusses the tiredness of the singers (after rehearsing the entire second act on the day of the premiere) as well as noting how certain numbers failed to please—and failed to please the composer as well! But then he explains that most of the second act was very effective. It appears from the letter that the second evening's performance was more successful and Weinstock reports it was from this performance forward that it "was recognised as a successful and important opera" with 208 performances given at La Scala alone by the end of the 19th century.[10]

Among the external reasons, Bellini cited the adverse reaction caused by "hostile factions in the audience"[5] consisting of both the owner of a journal (and his claque) and also of "a very rich woman", who is identified by Weinstock as Contessa Giulia Samoyloff, the mistress of the composer Giovanni Pacini. On Bellini's part, there had long been a feeling of rivalry with Pacini ever since the failure of his own Zaira in Parma and his return to Milan in June 1829. With no firm contract for a new opera for Bellini, Pacini's success with his Il Talismano at La Scala—where it received 16 performances—fueled this rivalry, at least in Bellini's head. It was only when he staged a triumphant revival of his own with Il pirata with the original cast that he felt vindicated. Pirata received 24 consecutive performances between 16 July and 23 August 1829, thus outnumbering those for Pacini's opera.[11]

However, Bellini also noted that on the second performance evening of Norma, the theatre was full.[12] In all, Norma was given 34 performances in its first season at La Scala, and reports from elsewhere, especially those from Bergamo, when it was staged in late 1832, suggested that it was becoming more and more popular. Between 1831 and 1850 Weinstock provides details of the dozens of performances given in numerous cities outside of Italy, and then he gives details of those beyond.[13]

Bellini left Milan for Naples, and then Sicily, on 5 January 1832 and, for the first time since 1827, 1832 became a year in which he did not write an opera.[14] Norma quickly "[conquered] the whole of Europe in the space of a few years".[5]

Later revivals edit

Richard Wagner conducted Norma at Riga in 1837. Following the common nineteenth-century practice of adding interpolated arias, he wrote an aria for the bass and men's chorus for this production.[15] However, that aria has not entered the general repertoire. Wagner wrote at the time that Norma was "indisputably Bellini's most successful composition".[16] "In this opera, Bellini has undoubtedly risen to the greatest heights of his talent. In these days of romantic extravaganzas and the hyper-excitement of the so-called musical attractions he presents a phenomenon which can hardly be overrated. The action, free from all theatrical coups and dazzling effects, reminds one instinctively of a Greek tragedy. Perhaps the views expressed by Schiller in his 'Bride of Messina' to the effect that he had hopes for the full revival of the tragedy of the ancients upon our stage, in the form of the opera, will receive new justification in this Norma! Let anyone name me a spiritual painting of its kind, more fully carried out, than that of this wild Gaelic prophetess...Every emotional moment stands out plastically; nothing has been vaguely swept together..."[17]

Wagner also praised Romani's 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, which involuntarily calls to mind the creations of Gluck and Spontini.[16][18]

The opera was given its British premiere in London on 20 June 1833 and its US premiere at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans on 1 April 1836.[19] In the late 1840s and during the Risorgimento era, some of the music was used in demonstrations of nationalistic fervour, one such example being the 1848 celebration of the liberation of Sicily from the rule of the Bourbons held in the cathedral in Palermo. There, the "Guerra, guerra" (War, war!) chorus from act 2 was sung.[5] Norma received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 27 February 1890 with Lilli Lehmann singing the title role in German.[citation needed]

Modern times edit

The Metropolitan Opera revived Norma in 1927 (the first performance of the opera there since 1892) with Rosa Ponselle in the title role.

During the later 20th century, with the bel canto revival, the most prolific Norma was the Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, who gave 89 stage performances (several of which exist on live recordings as well as two on studio versions made in 1954 and 1960). Callas's first appearances in the role began at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze in November/December 1948 followed by the second at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires in June 1949, both of which were conducted by Tullio Serafin. The following year, she appeared in the role at La Fenice in Venice in January 1950, this time under Antonino Votto,[20] and in Mexico in May 1950 conducted by Guido Picco. In London in 1952, Callas sang Norma at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November (where the role of Clotilde was sung by Joan Sutherland); she made her American debut singing the role at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in November 1954 under Nicola Rescigno; and then she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York under Fausto Cleva in October/November 1956.[21] In 1960, she performed Norma in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece with the collaboration of the Greek National Opera, in the production of Alexis Minotis.

Singers in the title role edit

 
Giulia Grisi dressed as Norma. In 1831, she also sang the role of Adalgisa

The title role—"one of the most taxing and wide-ranging parts in the entire repertory"[22]—is one of the most difficult in the soprano repertoire. It calls for great vocal control of range, flexibility, and dynamics as well as containing a wide range of emotions: conflict of personal and public life, romantic life, maternal love, friendship, jealousy, murderous intent, and resignation. The German soprano Lilli Lehmann once remarked that the singing of all three Brünnhilde roles of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen in one evening would be less stressful than the singing of one Norma.[23] She also commented "When you sing Wagner, you are so carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene that you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself. But in Bellini, you must always have a care for beauty of tone and correct emission."[citation needed] According to the Met Opera Archives, Lehmann said this to Herald Tribune critic Henry Krehbiel.

Throughout the 20th century, many singers have tackled the role of Norma. In the early 1920s, it was Rosa Raisa, Claudia Muzio, and Rosa Ponselle who were each admired. Maria Callas emerged as a major force in the role in the post-World War II period. She made two studio recordings of the opera for EMI/HMV, and several broadcasts of her live performances have been preserved from the early 1950s through her final performances of the role in Paris in May 1965.

In the 1960s, two very different performers sang the role: the Australian Dame Joan Sutherland and the Turkish Leyla Gencer. Following Sutherland's 1963 debut as Norma, Luciano Pavarotti called her "the greatest female voice of all time."[24]

The Dutch coloratura Cristina Deutekom tackled the role in 1970. Throughout the decade, four other bel canto specialists debuted their Normas: Radmila Bakočević, Montserrat Caballé, Beverly Sills, and Renata Scotto. Also singing Norma during this period were Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett, the American divas who began as mezzo-sopranos and eventually started singing soprano repertoire.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the role of Norma was performed by such diverse singers as Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Marisa Galvany, Dame Gwyneth Jones, and Jane Eaglen. Other Normas include Hasmik Papian, Fiorenza Cedolins, Galina Gorchakova, Maria Guleghina, Nelly Miricioiu, June Anderson, Edita Gruberová and Carmela Remigio (who performs more frequently the role of Adalgisa).[25]

In 2008, Daniela Dessì performed as Norma at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 2010 (in Dortmund)[26] and 2013 (at the Salzburg Festival) the role was taken by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli: this version was also recorded with coloratura soprano Sumi Jo as Adalgisa.[27] In 2011, Sondra Radvanovsky also added the role to her repertory, one to which she returned in the autumn 2014 at the San Francisco Opera and in the autumn of 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On 13 April 2013, the Italian bel canto soprano, Mariella Devia, after a career of 40 years and one day after turning 65, successfully made her debut as Norma at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.[28][29]Angela Meade has played the role often, including in 2013 and 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.[30]

Roles edit

 
Act 2 finale, Luigi Lablache as Oroveso, Giulia Grisi (as Norma), Dominique Conti as Pollione. Her Majesty's Theatre, London, 1843[31]
Roles, voice types, premiere cast
Role Voice type Premiere cast, 26 December 1831
Capo d'orchestra: Alessandro Rolla[32]
Norma, daughter of Oroveso,
High-priestess of the druids
soprano Giuditta Pasta
Pollione, Roman proconsul in Gaul tenor Domenico Donzelli
Oroveso, Norma's father; chief of the druids bass Vincenzo Negrini
Adalgisa, priestess in the grove of the Irminsul statue soprano[a] Giulia Grisi
Clotilde, Norma's friend soprano Marietta Sacchi
Flavio, Pollione's companion tenor Lorenzo Lombardi
Druids, bards, Gallic priests, warriors and soldiers
  1. ^ Adalgisa is often sung by mezzo-sopranos.

Summary edit

The action takes place in Gaul under the Roman occupation, and is centered on the love triangle between Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, Norma, his former companion, and the young Adalgisa. The background is the uprising of the Gallic people against the Roman occupiers, led by the Druid Oroveso.

Norma, the high priestess of the Druid temple, who had two children by Pollione, the Roman proconsul of Gaul, breaking her Druid chastity vows, discovers that her lover is now in love with her friend, the young Druid priestess Adalgisa. Norma tries to convince Pollione to give up Adalgisa and return to her, but he refuses. Norma publicly confesses her fault and is sentenced to death by fire. Pollione is moved by Norma’s self-sacrifice and joins her at the stake.

Synopsis edit

Place: Gaul
Time: c. 100-50 BC (Roman occupation)

Act 1 edit

Scene 1: The grove of the druids edit

Oroveso leads the druids in a procession in the forest to pray for victory against the invading Romans: (Oroveso and druids: "Ite sul colle, o Druidi" / "Go up on the hill, O druids"). The druids pray that Norma will come and have the courage to broker peace with the Romans: (Druids and Oroveso: "Dell'aura tua profetica" / "With thy prophetic aura, imbue her, O terrible God".) All leave to go to the temple.

Pollione and Flavio enter. Although Norma has secretly broken her vows in order to love him and has borne him two children, Pollione tells Flavio that he no longer loves Norma, having fallen in love with the priestess Adalgisa. But he expresses some remorse, describing his dream in which Adalgisa was beside him at the altar of Venus and a huge storm arose: (Pollione, aria: "Meco all'altar di Venere" / "With me at the altar in Rome was Adalgisa dressed in white, veiled all in white.") The storm presaged disaster for both Norma and himself: "Thus does Norma punish her faithless lover," he declares. They hear the trumpets sounding to announce Norma's arrival. Flavio urges his friend to leave, but Pollione stands firm, proclaiming that he will confront Norma and the druids with a superior power and overthrow their altars: (Cabaletta: "Me protegge, me difende" / "I am protected and defended")

As Norma leads the druids and priestesses, the crowd proclaims: "Norma viene" / "Norma is coming" and, as Oroveso awaits her, they describe her dress and manner. All kneel as she approaches. "The time is not ripe for our revenge", she declares, stating that Rome will perish one day by being worn down. Then, with the mistletoe in hand, she approaches the altar with a plea to the moon (the "Chaste Goddess"): (cavatina: "Casta diva" / "Chaste goddess"). She pleads that the goddess shed upon earth the peace that she has created in heaven. She calls for all to complete the rites and then clear the uninitiated from the grove. To herself, she declares that she cannot hurt Pollione, but desires that things return to where they used to be: (Cabaletta: "Ah! bello a me ritorna" / "Return to me, O beautiful one"). The assembled crowd accepts her cautious approach, and all leave the grove.

Later that night: The Temple of Irminsul in the grove

Adalgisa prays at the temple, remembering with some sorrow how she became involved with Pollione. He enters, telling her that she prays to a cruel god and is not trying to invoke the god of love. As she appears to reject him, he declares (Aria: "Va crudele" /"Go, O cruel one") but he is convinced that he cannot leave her. He is distraught, and she doesn't show she is equally torn, until the moment he declares that he must return to Rome the following day. He begs Adalgisa to go with him: (Duet: Pollione, then Adalgisa, then together: "Vieni in Roma" / "Come to Rome"). She resists him, but finally agrees that they will leave together the following day.

Scene 2: Norma's dwelling edit

 
Alessandro Sanquirico's set design for act 1, scene 2, for the original production

Norma appears to be upset and orders her maid, Clotilde, to take the two children away from her, expressing very ambivalent feelings about them. She tells Clotilde that Pollione has been recalled to Rome, but does not know if he will take her or how he feels about leaving his children. As Adalgisa approaches, the children are taken away.

Adalgisa tells Norma she has fallen in love with a Roman, whom she does not name. As she describes how she fell in love while waiting at the temple and seeing "his handsome face" appear, Norma recalls (as an aside) her own feelings for Pollione ("my passions, too, burned like this"), and more and more, their experiences of falling in love run parallel: (Norma and Adalgisa, duet: "Sola, furtiva al tempio" / "Often I would wait for him"). Adalgisa pleads for help and forgiveness, and Norma pledges that she will do that and will also free her from her vows as a priestess: (Norma: "Ah! sì, fa core, abbracciami" / "Yes, take heart, embrace me". Adalgisa: "Ripeti, o ciel, ripetimi" / "Say that again, heavens, say again")

Norma asks Adalgisa to describe the man whom she loves. Responding, she tells her that he is a Roman, and, at that moment, turns to indicate that it is Pollione who is just then entering the room. As Norma furiously turns to confront Pollione, Adalgisa is confused: Norma: "Oh! non tremare, o perfido" / "O faithless man, do not tremble".

Forcing the priestess to realise that she is the victim of a huge deception, Norma addresses Adalgisa. (Trio: each sings in succession, beginning with Norma: "Oh! di qual sei tu vittima" / "Oh, you are the victim"; then Adalgisa: "Oh! qual traspare orribile" / "What horror has been revealed"; then the two women together, followed by Pollione alone: "Norma! de' tuoi rimproveri" / "Norma, do not reproach me now", continuing with "Please give this wretched girl some respite"; after which all three repeat their words, singing at first individually, then together.)

There are angry exchanges among the three: Norma declaring Pollione to be a traitor, he trying to persuade Adalgisa to leave with him, and Adalgisa angrily telling him to go away. When he declares that it is his fate to leave Norma, she encourages the young priestess to go with him, but Adalgisa declares that she would rather die. Norma then demands that her lover go, leaving behind his children — and his honor. (Finale: brief duet, Adalgisa and Pollione: he declares his love, and she her desire for Norma not to be a source of guilt to her. Trio: Norma continues to rage at Pollione, Adalgisa repeats her desire to make him return to Norma, and Pollione curses the day when he met Norma.) Then the sound of the druids calling Norma to the temple is heard. They report that the angry god, Irminsul, has spoken. Pollione storms out.

Act 2 edit

  • Orchestral introduction

Scene 1: Norma's dwelling edit

Norma looks at both of her sons, who are asleep. She considers killing them. Advancing towards them with knife upraised, she hesitates. (Recitative: "Dormono entrambi ... non vedran la mano che li percuote" / "They are both asleep ... they shall not see the hand which strikes them.") But she cannot bring herself to do it: (Aria: "Teneri, teneri figli" / "My dear, dear sons") The children wake up and she calls for Clotilde, demanding that Adalgisa be brought to her.

The young priestess enters, concerned at how pale Norma looks. Norma makes her swear to do everything she asks and, upon her agreement, tells her that she is entrusting the two children to her care and states that they should be taken to the Roman camp to their father Pollione, a man who she hopes will make a better lover for Adalgisa than he was for her. Adalgisa is aghast. Norma: "I beg you for his children's sake." (Duet, first Norma: "Deh! con te, con te li prendi" / "Please, take them with you") Adalgisa tells her that she will never leave Gaul and only agreed to the request in order to do what was good for Norma. (Duet, Adalgisa: "Vado al campo"/"I'll go to the camp") In the duet, Adalgisa agrees to go to the Roman camp and tell Pollione of Norma's grief; her hope is to persuade him to return to Norma. She then renounces Pollione: (Duet: "Mira, o Norma" / "Look, o Norma") They sing together, each expressing her own thoughts and feelings until Norma realizes that Adalgisa will give up Pollione and remain with her: (Cabaletta; Duet, Norma and Adalgisa: "Si fino all'ore estreme" / "Until the last hour")

Scene 2: The grove edit

The druid warriors gather and prepare themselves to attack the Romans. Oroveso enters with news from the gods: the time has not arrived to strike. Somewhat frustrated, the soldiers accept the decision.

Scene 3: The temple of Irminsul edit

Norma enters. (Aria: "Ei tornerà" / "He will come back") Then Clotilde arrives with news that Adalgisa has failed to persuade Pollione to return. Although Norma questions whether she should have trusted her, she then learns from her servant that Adalgisa is returning and wishes to take her vows at the altar and that the Roman has sworn to abduct her from the temple. In anger, Norma strikes a gong-like shield as a summons to war. Trumpets sound and Oroveso and the druids all rush in, demanding to know what is happening. They hear Norma's answer and the soldiers take up the refrain: "Guerra, guerra!" / "War, war!", while Norma proclaims "Blood, blood! Revenge!"

In order for Norma to complete the rites to authorise going to war, Oroveso demands to know who will be the sacrificial victim. At that moment, Clotilde rushes in to announce that a Roman has desecrated the temple, but that he has been apprehended. It is Pollione who is led in, and Norma is urged to take the sacrificial knife to stab him but, approaching him, she is unable to perform the deed. The assembled crowd demands to know why, but she dismisses them, stating that she needs to question her victim.

The crowd departs: (Duet, Norma and Pollione: "In mia man alfin tu sei" / "At last you are in my hands"). Norma demands that he forever shun Adalgisa; only then will she release him and never see him again. He refuses, and she vents her anger by telling him that she will then kill her children. "Strike me instead", he demands, "so that only I alone will die", but she quickly asserts that not only will all the Romans die, but so will Adalgisa, who has broken her vows as a priestess. This prompts him to plead for her life. (Cabaletta: Norma and Pollione: "Già mi pasco ne' tuoi sguardi" / "Already I take pleasure in the looks you give me".) When Pollione demands the knife, she calls the priests to assemble. Norma announces that it would be better to sacrifice a priestess who has broken her vows, and orders the pyre to be lit. Oroveso demands to know who is to be sacrificed while Pollione begs that she stays silent. Norma then wonders if she is not in fact the guilty one, then reveals that it is she who is to be the victim: a high priestess who has broken her vows, has become involved with the enemy, and has borne his children. (Aria, Norma to Pollione: "Qual cor tradisti" / "The heart you betrayed"; Duet: Norma and Pollione; ensemble, Norma, Oroveso, Pollione, druids, priests: each expresses his/her sorrow, anger, pleas to Norma, with Oroveso learning for the first time that Norma is a mother.)

In the concerted finale, Norma pleads with Oroveso to spare her children, reminding her father that they are of his own blood. ("Deh! non volerli vittime" / "Please don't make them victims"). After he promises to take care of them, she prepares to leap into the flames, and the re-enamoured Pollione joins her, declaring "your pyre is mine as well. There, a holier and everlasting love will begin".[33]

Music edit

 
Drawing for Norma (undated)

It was Giuseppe Verdi who—late in his life—made some perceptive comments in a letter of May 1898 to Camille Belaigue [fr], who had recently published a book on Bellini. In the letter, Verdi states:

Bellini is poor, it is true, in harmony and instrumentation; but rich in feeling and in an individual melancholy of his own! Even in the least well-known of his operas, in La straniera, in Il pirata, there are long, long, long melodies such as no-one before him had produced. And what truth and power of declamation, as for example in the duet between Pollione and Norma! [See act 2, scene 3 above. Norma: "In mia man alfin tu sei" / "At last you are in my hands"] And what elation of thought in the first phrase of the introduction [to the duet] ... no-one ever has created another more beautiful and heavenly.[34]

Commenting on the overall quality of the music in Norma, David Kimbell states that "Bellini's most astonishing achievement in Norma is, amid all the more obvious excitements of musical Romanticism, to have asserted his belief that the true magic of opera depended on a kind of incantation in which dramatic poetry and song are perfectly fused."[35] Additionally, Kimbell provides examples of how the composer's art is revealed in this opera, but also noting that the ability to achieve a "fusion of music and dramatic meaning is to be found elsewhere in Bellini's work".[35]

Schopenhauer's praise edit

Schopenhauer claimed that tragedy causes the spectator to lose the will to live. "The horrors on the stage hold up to him the bitterness and worthlessness of life, and so the vanity of all its efforts and endeavors. The effect of this impression must be that he becomes aware, although only in an obscure feeling, that it is better to tear his heart away from life, to turn his willing away from it, not to love the world and life."[36] He praised Norma for its artistic excellence in producing this effect. "…[T]he genuinely tragic effect of the catastrophe, the hero's resignation and spiritual exaltation produced by it, seldom appear so purely motivated and distinctly expressed as in the opera Norma, where it comes in the duet "Qual cor tradisti, qual cor perdesti" [What a heart you betrayed, what a heart you lost]. Here the conversion of the will is clearly indicated by the quietness suddenly introduced into the music. Quite apart from its excellent music, and from the diction that can only be that of a libretto, and considered only according to its motives and to its interior economy, this piece is in general a tragedy of extreme perfection, a true model of the tragic disposition of the motives, of the tragic progress of the action, and of tragic development, together with the effect of these on the frame of mind of the heroes, which surmounts the world. This effect then passes on to the spectator."[36]

Ibsen parody edit

Norma, or A Politician's Love (Norwegian: Norma eller En Politikers Kjærlighed) is an eight-page drama written as an opera parody by Henrik Ibsen. It is influenced by Bellini's Norma, which Ibsen saw in 1851, but the characters are contemporary politicians. The play was first printed anonymously in the satirical magazine Andhrimner in 1851.[37] The first book edition came in 1909, and the first performance of the play was at a student theatre in Trondheim 1994.

Marion Zimmer Bradley edit

Writer Marion Zimmer Bradley acknowledged that the plot of her 1993 historical novel/fantasy book The Forest House was based on that of Norma – relocated from Gaul to Britain, but sharing the basic plot outline of a love affair between a druidic priestess and a Roman officer. Bradley further stated that, in homage to Bellini, the hymns in chapter five and twenty-two of her book are adapted from the libretto of the opera's act 1, scene 1, and those in chapter thirty from act 2, scene 2.[38]

Recordings edit

See also edit

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ Weinstock 1971, p. 89.
  2. ^ Weinstock 1971, p. 100.
  3. ^ Bellini to Pasta, 1 September 1831, in Weinstock 1971, p. 100
  4. ^ Romani, in Kimbell 2001, p. 51
  5. ^ a b c d Kimbell 2001, p. 51
  6. ^ Sherillo[who?], in Weinstock 1971, p. 104
  7. ^ Weinstock 1971, p. 104
  8. ^ Weinstock 1971, p. 105.
  9. ^ Bellini to Florimo, 26 December 1831, in Weinstock 1971, p. 105
  10. ^ Weinstock 1971, p. 268.
  11. ^ Weinstock 1971, pp. 79–82
  12. ^ Bellini to Vincenzo Ferlito, 28 December 1831, in Weinstock 1971, p. 106
  13. ^ Weinstock 1971, pp. 270–275.
  14. ^ Weinstock 1971, pp. 107–108.
  15. ^ Maguire & Forbes 1998, pp. 617–619.
  16. ^ a b Essay on the opera by Wagner, in Kimbell 2001, p. 51
  17. ^ Friedlaender, Maryla (7 February 1944). "What Wagner Thought of Norma". Opera News. p. 5.
  18. ^ Friedlaender, Maryla (22 March 1954). "Norma Challenged Richard Wagner". Opera News. p. 32.
  19. ^ Rutherford 2007, p. 123, n. 77.
  20. ^ Bret 1997, pp. 324–336.
  21. ^ Maguire & Forbes 1998, p. 617.
  22. ^ Maguire & Forbes 1998, p. 618.
  23. ^ Interview between Edward Downes and Maria Callas. La Divina Complete, CD 4. EMI Classics.
  24. ^ Midgette, Anne (12 October 2010). "Soprano Joan Sutherland, legendary opera star and bel canto singer, dies at 83". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  25. ^ Dinko Fabris, "La Norma", la Repubblica (in Italian), Bari edition, 25 May 2011, p. 16; Alessandro Cammarano, "Venezia – Teatro La Fenice: Norma", OperaClick (in Italian), 20 May 2015. Remigio also sang the minor role of Clotilde in the Ravenna Festival's 1994 staging conducted by Riccardo Muti and recorded by EMI.
  26. ^ Alberto Mattioli, "Per la superdiva Bartoli un debutto fuori Norma", La Stampa (in Italian), 1 July 2010.
  27. ^ Joseph Newsome, "Cecilia Bartoli as Norma", in Opera Today, 30 May 2013.
  28. ^ Jack Buckley, "Mariella Devia's Norma", on Seen and Heard International, 16 April 2013
  29. ^ Gabriele Cesaretti, "Bologna – Teatro Comunale: Norma", on OperaClick, undated.(in Italian)
  30. ^ "Biography - Angela Meade - Soprano".
  31. ^ "The Theatres – April 18: Norma", The Illustrated London News, p. 124, 19 August 1843
  32. ^ Libretto, p. 5.
  33. ^ English translation partly taken from 1964 Decca recording with Joan Sutherland as Norma
  34. ^ Verdi to Camille Belaigue, 2 May 1898, in Weinstock 1971, p. 279
  35. ^ a b Kimbell 2001, p. 52
  36. ^ a b The World as Will and Representation, volume 2, chapter 37
  37. ^ Hanssen, Jens-Morten (10 July 2005). "Facts about Norma". National Library of Norway. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  38. ^ Marion Zimmer Bradley, preface to The Forests of Avalon

Cited sources

Further reading edit

  • Casa Ricordi (pub.), "Vincenzo Bellini": Outline of his life (in English) and list of critical editions of his works published by Ricordi on ricordi.it. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  • Galatopoulos, Stelios (2002), Bellini: Life, Times, Music: 1801–1835. London, Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86074-405-1
  • Lippmann, Friedrich; McGuire, Simon (1998), "Bellini, Vincenzo", in Stanley Sadie, (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, vol. 1, pp. 389–397. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-73432-7
  • Osborne, Charles (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3
  • Orrey, Leslie (1973), Bellini (The Master Musicians Series), London: J. M. Dent. ISBN 0-460-02137-0
  • Rosselli, John (1996), The Life of Bellini, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46781-0
  • Thiellay, Jean; Thiellay, Jean-Philippe, Bellini, Paris: Actes Sud, 2013, ISBN 978-2-330-02377-5 (in French)
  • Willier, Stephen Ace, Vincenzo Bellini: A Guide to Research. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-8153-3805-8

External links edit

norma, opera, norma, italian, ˈnɔrma, tragedia, lirica, opera, acts, vincenzo, bellini, with, libretto, felice, romani, after, play, norma, infanticide, norma, infanticide, alexandre, soumet, first, produced, scala, milan, december, 1831, normaopera, vincenzo,. Norma Italian ˈnɔrma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma ou L infanticide Norma or The Infanticide by Alexandre Soumet It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831 NormaOpera by Vincenzo BelliniDomenico Donzelli Giuditta Pasta and Giulia Grisi original cast LibrettistFelice RomaniLanguageItalianBased onAlexandre Soumet s play Norma ou L infanticidePremiere26 December 1831 1831 12 26 Teatro alla Scala MilanThe opera is regarded as a leading example of the bel canto genre and the soprano prayer Casta diva in Act 1 is a famous piece Among the well known singers of Norma of the first half of the 20th century was Rosa Ponselle who played the role in New York and London Notable exponents of the title role in the post war period have been Maria Callas Leyla Gencer Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballe Contents 1 Composition history 2 Performance history 2 1 Premiere performances 2 2 Later revivals 2 3 Modern times 3 Singers in the title role 4 Roles 5 Summary 6 Synopsis 6 1 Act 1 6 1 1 Scene 1 The grove of the druids 6 1 2 Scene 2 Norma s dwelling 6 2 Act 2 6 2 1 Scene 1 Norma s dwelling 6 2 2 Scene 2 The grove 6 2 3 Scene 3 The temple of Irminsul 7 Music 8 Schopenhauer s praise 9 Ibsen parody 10 Marion Zimmer Bradley 11 Recordings 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External linksComposition history edit nbsp Librettist Felice Romani nbsp Giuditta Pasta for whom the role of Norma was createdCrivelli and Company were managing both La Scala and La Fenice in Venice and as a result in April May 1830 Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with them for two operas one at each theatre The opera for December 1831 at La Scala became Norma while the one for the 1832 Carnival season at La Fenice became Beatrice di Tenda 1 With Bellini s La sonnambula successfully staged in March 1831 and Giuditta Pasta having demonstrated her extensive vocal and dramatic ranges in creating the role of Amina the Swiss village maiden she had been engaged by La Scala for her debut during the following season Bellini and Romani then began to consider the subject of the coming autumn s opera By the summer they had decided to base it on Alexandre Soumet s play which was being performed in Paris at around that time and which Pasta would have seen For the forthcoming autumn winter season La Scala had engaged Giulia Grisi the sister of Giuditta Grisi and the well known tenor Domenico Donzelli who had made a name for himself with Rossini roles especially that of Otello They would fill the roles of Adalgisa and Pollione Donzelli provided Bellini with precise details of his vocal capabilities which were confirmed by a report which the Neapolitan composer Saverio Mercadante also provided By the end of August it appears that Romani had completed a considerable amount of the libretto enough at least to allow Bellini to begin work which he certainly did in the first weeks of September as the verses were supplied 2 He reported in a letter to Pasta on 1 September I hope that you will find this subject to your liking Romani believes it to be very effective and precisely because of the all inclusive character for you which is that of Norma He will manipulate the situations so that they will not resemble other subjects at all and he will retouch even change the characters to produce more effect if need be 3 Norma was completed by about the end of November While for Romani it became the most beautiful rose in the garland of all his work with Bellini 4 it was not achieved without some struggles Bellini now at the height of his powers was very demanding of his librettist and required many re writes before he was satisfied enough to set it to music 5 Performance history edit nbsp Poster advertising the 1831 premiere nbsp Domenico Donzelli sang Pollione nbsp Giulia Grisi sang Adalgisa nbsp Vincenzo Negrini sang OrovesoPremiere performances edit After rehearsals began on 5 December Pasta balked at singing the Casta diva in act 1 now one of the most famous arias of the nineteenth century She felt that it was ill adapted to her vocal abilities 6 but Bellini was able to persuade her to keep trying for a week after which she adapted to it and confessed her earlier error 7 At the opening night the opera was received with what Weinstock describes as chill indifference 8 To his friend Francesco Florimo on the night of the premiere Bellini wrote Fiasco Fiasco Solemn fiasco and proceeded to tell him of the indifference of the audience and how it affected him 9 In addition in a letter to his uncle on 28 December Bellini tried to explain the reasons for the reactions As other commentators have also noted some problems were innate to the structure and content of the opera while others were external to it Bellini discusses the tiredness of the singers after rehearsing the entire second act on the day of the premiere as well as noting how certain numbers failed to please and failed to please the composer as well But then he explains that most of the second act was very effective It appears from the letter that the second evening s performance was more successful and Weinstock reports it was from this performance forward that it was recognised as a successful and important opera with 208 performances given at La Scala alone by the end of the 19th century 10 Among the external reasons Bellini cited the adverse reaction caused by hostile factions in the audience 5 consisting of both the owner of a journal and his claque and also of a very rich woman who is identified by Weinstock as Contessa Giulia Samoyloff the mistress of the composer Giovanni Pacini On Bellini s part there had long been a feeling of rivalry with Pacini ever since the failure of his own Zaira in Parma and his return to Milan in June 1829 With no firm contract for a new opera for Bellini Pacini s success with his Il Talismano at La Scala where it received 16 performances fueled this rivalry at least in Bellini s head It was only when he staged a triumphant revival of his own with Il pirata with the original cast that he felt vindicated Pirata received 24 consecutive performances between 16 July and 23 August 1829 thus outnumbering those for Pacini s opera 11 However Bellini also noted that on the second performance evening of Norma the theatre was full 12 In all Norma was given 34 performances in its first season at La Scala and reports from elsewhere especially those from Bergamo when it was staged in late 1832 suggested that it was becoming more and more popular Between 1831 and 1850 Weinstock provides details of the dozens of performances given in numerous cities outside of Italy and then he gives details of those beyond 13 Bellini left Milan for Naples and then Sicily on 5 January 1832 and for the first time since 1827 1832 became a year in which he did not write an opera 14 Norma quickly conquered the whole of Europe in the space of a few years 5 Later revivals edit Richard Wagner conducted Norma at Riga in 1837 Following the common nineteenth century practice of adding interpolated arias he wrote an aria for the bass and men s chorus for this production 15 However that aria has not entered the general repertoire Wagner wrote at the time that Norma was indisputably Bellini s most successful composition 16 In this opera Bellini has undoubtedly risen to the greatest heights of his talent In these days of romantic extravaganzas and the hyper excitement of the so called musical attractions he presents a phenomenon which can hardly be overrated The action free from all theatrical coups and dazzling effects reminds one instinctively of a Greek tragedy Perhaps the views expressed by Schiller in his Bride of Messina to the effect that he had hopes for the full revival of the tragedy of the ancients upon our stage in the form of the opera will receive new justification in this Norma Let anyone name me a spiritual painting of its kind more fully carried out than that of this wild Gaelic prophetess Every emotional moment stands out plastically nothing has been vaguely swept together 17 Wagner also praised Romani s 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 which involuntarily calls to mind the creations of Gluck and Spontini 16 18 The opera was given its British premiere in London on 20 June 1833 and its US premiere at the St Charles Theatre in New Orleans on 1 April 1836 19 In the late 1840s and during the Risorgimento era some of the music was used in demonstrations of nationalistic fervour one such example being the 1848 celebration of the liberation of Sicily from the rule of the Bourbons held in the cathedral in Palermo There the Guerra guerra War war chorus from act 2 was sung 5 Norma received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 27 February 1890 with Lilli Lehmann singing the title role in German citation needed Modern times edit The Metropolitan Opera revived Norma in 1927 the first performance of the opera there since 1892 with Rosa Ponselle in the title role During the later 20th century with the bel canto revival the most prolific Norma was the Greek American soprano Maria Callas who gave 89 stage performances several of which exist on live recordings as well as two on studio versions made in 1954 and 1960 Callas s first appearances in the role began at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze in November December 1948 followed by the second at the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires in June 1949 both of which were conducted by Tullio Serafin The following year she appeared in the role at La Fenice in Venice in January 1950 this time under Antonino Votto 20 and in Mexico in May 1950 conducted by Guido Picco In London in 1952 Callas sang Norma at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in November where the role of Clotilde was sung by Joan Sutherland she made her American debut singing the role at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in November 1954 under Nicola Rescigno and then she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York under Fausto Cleva in October November 1956 21 In 1960 she performed Norma in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece with the collaboration of the Greek National Opera in the production of Alexis Minotis Singers in the title role edit nbsp Giulia Grisi dressed as Norma In 1831 she also sang the role of AdalgisaThe title role one of the most taxing and wide ranging parts in the entire repertory 22 is one of the most difficult in the soprano repertoire It calls for great vocal control of range flexibility and dynamics as well as containing a wide range of emotions conflict of personal and public life romantic life maternal love friendship jealousy murderous intent and resignation The German soprano Lilli Lehmann once remarked that the singing of all three Brunnhilde roles of Wagner s opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen in one evening would be less stressful than the singing of one Norma 23 She also commented When you sing Wagner you are so carried away by the dramatic emotion the action and the scene that you do not have to think how to sing the words That comes of itself But in Bellini you must always have a care for beauty of tone and correct emission citation needed According to the Met Opera Archives Lehmann said this to Herald Tribune critic Henry Krehbiel Throughout the 20th century many singers have tackled the role of Norma In the early 1920s it was Rosa Raisa Claudia Muzio and Rosa Ponselle who were each admired Maria Callas emerged as a major force in the role in the post World War II period She made two studio recordings of the opera for EMI HMV and several broadcasts of her live performances have been preserved from the early 1950s through her final performances of the role in Paris in May 1965 In the 1960s two very different performers sang the role the Australian Dame Joan Sutherland and the Turkish Leyla Gencer Following Sutherland s 1963 debut as Norma Luciano Pavarotti called her the greatest female voice of all time 24 The Dutch coloratura Cristina Deutekom tackled the role in 1970 Throughout the decade four other bel canto specialists debuted their Normas Radmila Bakocevic Montserrat Caballe Beverly Sills and Renata Scotto Also singing Norma during this period were Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett the American divas who began as mezzo sopranos and eventually started singing soprano repertoire During the 1980s and 1990s the role of Norma was performed by such diverse singers as Katia Ricciarelli Anna Tomowa Sintow Marisa Galvany Dame Gwyneth Jones and Jane Eaglen Other Normas include Hasmik Papian Fiorenza Cedolins Galina Gorchakova Maria Guleghina Nelly Miricioiu June Anderson Edita Gruberova and Carmela Remigio who performs more frequently the role of Adalgisa 25 In 2008 Daniela Dessi performed as Norma at Teatro Comunale di Bologna In 2010 in Dortmund 26 and 2013 at the Salzburg Festival the role was taken by mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli this version was also recorded with coloratura soprano Sumi Jo as Adalgisa 27 In 2011 Sondra Radvanovsky also added the role to her repertory one to which she returned in the autumn 2014 at the San Francisco Opera and in the autumn of 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York On 13 April 2013 the Italian bel canto soprano Mariella Devia after a career of 40 years and one day after turning 65 successfully made her debut as Norma at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna 28 29 Angela Meade has played the role often including in 2013 and 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York 30 Roles edit nbsp Act 2 finale Luigi Lablache as Oroveso Giulia Grisi as Norma Dominique Conti as Pollione Her Majesty s Theatre London 1843 31 Roles voice types premiere cast Role Voice type Premiere cast 26 December 1831Capo d orchestra Alessandro Rolla 32 Norma daughter of Oroveso High priestess of the druids soprano Giuditta PastaPollione Roman proconsul in Gaul tenor Domenico DonzelliOroveso Norma s father chief of the druids bass Vincenzo NegriniAdalgisa priestess in the grove of the Irminsul statue soprano a Giulia GrisiClotilde Norma s friend soprano Marietta SacchiFlavio Pollione s companion tenor Lorenzo LombardiDruids bards Gallic priests warriors and soldiers Adalgisa is often sung by mezzo sopranos Summary editThe action takes place in Gaul under the Roman occupation and is centered on the love triangle between Pollione the Roman proconsul of Gaul Norma his former companion and the young Adalgisa The background is the uprising of the Gallic people against the Roman occupiers led by the Druid Oroveso Norma the high priestess of the Druid temple who had two children by Pollione the Roman proconsul of Gaul breaking her Druid chastity vows discovers that her lover is now in love with her friend the young Druid priestess Adalgisa Norma tries to convince Pollione to give up Adalgisa and return to her but he refuses Norma publicly confesses her fault and is sentenced to death by fire Pollione is moved by Norma s self sacrifice and joins her at the stake Synopsis editPlace Gaul Time c 100 50 BC Roman occupation Act 1 edit SinfoniaScene 1 The grove of the druids edit Oroveso leads the druids in a procession in the forest to pray for victory against the invading Romans Oroveso and druids Ite sul colle o Druidi Go up on the hill O druids The druids pray that Norma will come and have the courage to broker peace with the Romans Druids and Oroveso Dell aura tua profetica With thy prophetic aura imbue her O terrible God All leave to go to the temple Pollione and Flavio enter Although Norma has secretly broken her vows in order to love him and has borne him two children Pollione tells Flavio that he no longer loves Norma having fallen in love with the priestess Adalgisa But he expresses some remorse describing his dream in which Adalgisa was beside him at the altar of Venus and a huge storm arose Pollione aria Meco all altar di Venere With me at the altar in Rome was Adalgisa dressed in white veiled all in white The storm presaged disaster for both Norma and himself Thus does Norma punish her faithless lover he declares They hear the trumpets sounding to announce Norma s arrival Flavio urges his friend to leave but Pollione stands firm proclaiming that he will confront Norma and the druids with a superior power and overthrow their altars Cabaletta Me protegge me difende I am protected and defended nbsp Casta Diva source source Claudia Muzio circa 1936 Problems playing this file See media help As Norma leads the druids and priestesses the crowd proclaims Norma viene Norma is coming and as Oroveso awaits her they describe her dress and manner All kneel as she approaches The time is not ripe for our revenge she declares stating that Rome will perish one day by being worn down Then with the mistletoe in hand she approaches the altar with a plea to the moon the Chaste Goddess cavatina Casta diva Chaste goddess She pleads that the goddess shed upon earth the peace that she has created in heaven She calls for all to complete the rites and then clear the uninitiated from the grove To herself she declares that she cannot hurt Pollione but desires that things return to where they used to be Cabaletta Ah bello a me ritorna Return to me O beautiful one The assembled crowd accepts her cautious approach and all leave the grove Later that night The Temple of Irminsul in the groveAdalgisa prays at the temple remembering with some sorrow how she became involved with Pollione He enters telling her that she prays to a cruel god and is not trying to invoke the god of love As she appears to reject him he declares Aria Va crudele Go O cruel one but he is convinced that he cannot leave her He is distraught and she doesn t show she is equally torn until the moment he declares that he must return to Rome the following day He begs Adalgisa to go with him Duet Pollione then Adalgisa then together Vieni in Roma Come to Rome She resists him but finally agrees that they will leave together the following day Scene 2 Norma s dwelling edit nbsp Alessandro Sanquirico s set design for act 1 scene 2 for the original productionNorma appears to be upset and orders her maid Clotilde to take the two children away from her expressing very ambivalent feelings about them She tells Clotilde that Pollione has been recalled to Rome but does not know if he will take her or how he feels about leaving his children As Adalgisa approaches the children are taken away Adalgisa tells Norma she has fallen in love with a Roman whom she does not name As she describes how she fell in love while waiting at the temple and seeing his handsome face appear Norma recalls as an aside her own feelings for Pollione my passions too burned like this and more and more their experiences of falling in love run parallel Norma and Adalgisa duet Sola furtiva al tempio Often I would wait for him Adalgisa pleads for help and forgiveness and Norma pledges that she will do that and will also free her from her vows as a priestess Norma Ah si fa core abbracciami Yes take heart embrace me Adalgisa Ripeti o ciel ripetimi Say that again heavens say again Norma asks Adalgisa to describe the man whom she loves Responding she tells her that he is a Roman and at that moment turns to indicate that it is Pollione who is just then entering the room As Norma furiously turns to confront Pollione Adalgisa is confused Norma Oh non tremare o perfido O faithless man do not tremble Forcing the priestess to realise that she is the victim of a huge deception Norma addresses Adalgisa Trio each sings in succession beginning with Norma Oh di qual sei tu vittima Oh you are the victim then Adalgisa Oh qual traspare orribile What horror has been revealed then the two women together followed by Pollione alone Norma de tuoi rimproveri Norma do not reproach me now continuing with Please give this wretched girl some respite after which all three repeat their words singing at first individually then together There are angry exchanges among the three Norma declaring Pollione to be a traitor he trying to persuade Adalgisa to leave with him and Adalgisa angrily telling him to go away When he declares that it is his fate to leave Norma she encourages the young priestess to go with him but Adalgisa declares that she would rather die Norma then demands that her lover go leaving behind his children and his honor Finale brief duet Adalgisa and Pollione he declares his love and she her desire for Norma not to be a source of guilt to her Trio Norma continues to rage at Pollione Adalgisa repeats her desire to make him return to Norma and Pollione curses the day when he met Norma Then the sound of the druids calling Norma to the temple is heard They report that the angry god Irminsul has spoken Pollione storms out Act 2 edit Orchestral introductionScene 1 Norma s dwelling edit Norma looks at both of her sons who are asleep She considers killing them Advancing towards them with knife upraised she hesitates Recitative Dormono entrambi non vedran la mano che li percuote They are both asleep they shall not see the hand which strikes them But she cannot bring herself to do it Aria Teneri teneri figli My dear dear sons The children wake up and she calls for Clotilde demanding that Adalgisa be brought to her The young priestess enters concerned at how pale Norma looks Norma makes her swear to do everything she asks and upon her agreement tells her that she is entrusting the two children to her care and states that they should be taken to the Roman camp to their father Pollione a man who she hopes will make a better lover for Adalgisa than he was for her Adalgisa is aghast Norma I beg you for his children s sake Duet first Norma Deh con te con te li prendi Please take them with you Adalgisa tells her that she will never leave Gaul and only agreed to the request in order to do what was good for Norma Duet Adalgisa Vado al campo I ll go to the camp In the duet Adalgisa agrees to go to the Roman camp and tell Pollione of Norma s grief her hope is to persuade him to return to Norma She then renounces Pollione Duet Mira o Norma Look o Norma They sing together each expressing her own thoughts and feelings until Norma realizes that Adalgisa will give up Pollione and remain with her Cabaletta Duet Norma and Adalgisa Si fino all ore estreme Until the last hour Scene 2 The grove edit The druid warriors gather and prepare themselves to attack the Romans Oroveso enters with news from the gods the time has not arrived to strike Somewhat frustrated the soldiers accept the decision Scene 3 The temple of Irminsul edit Norma enters Aria Ei tornera He will come back Then Clotilde arrives with news that Adalgisa has failed to persuade Pollione to return Although Norma questions whether she should have trusted her she then learns from her servant that Adalgisa is returning and wishes to take her vows at the altar and that the Roman has sworn to abduct her from the temple In anger Norma strikes a gong like shield as a summons to war Trumpets sound and Oroveso and the druids all rush in demanding to know what is happening They hear Norma s answer and the soldiers take up the refrain Guerra guerra War war while Norma proclaims Blood blood Revenge In order for Norma to complete the rites to authorise going to war Oroveso demands to know who will be the sacrificial victim At that moment Clotilde rushes in to announce that a Roman has desecrated the temple but that he has been apprehended It is Pollione who is led in and Norma is urged to take the sacrificial knife to stab him but approaching him she is unable to perform the deed The assembled crowd demands to know why but she dismisses them stating that she needs to question her victim The crowd departs Duet Norma and Pollione In mia man alfin tu sei At last you are in my hands Norma demands that he forever shun Adalgisa only then will she release him and never see him again He refuses and she vents her anger by telling him that she will then kill her children Strike me instead he demands so that only I alone will die but she quickly asserts that not only will all the Romans die but so will Adalgisa who has broken her vows as a priestess This prompts him to plead for her life Cabaletta Norma and Pollione Gia mi pasco ne tuoi sguardi Already I take pleasure in the looks you give me When Pollione demands the knife she calls the priests to assemble Norma announces that it would be better to sacrifice a priestess who has broken her vows and orders the pyre to be lit Oroveso demands to know who is to be sacrificed while Pollione begs that she stays silent Norma then wonders if she is not in fact the guilty one then reveals that it is she who is to be the victim a high priestess who has broken her vows has become involved with the enemy and has borne his children Aria Norma to Pollione Qual cor tradisti The heart you betrayed Duet Norma and Pollione ensemble Norma Oroveso Pollione druids priests each expresses his her sorrow anger pleas to Norma with Oroveso learning for the first time that Norma is a mother In the concerted finale Norma pleads with Oroveso to spare her children reminding her father that they are of his own blood Deh non volerli vittime Please don t make them victims After he promises to take care of them she prepares to leap into the flames and the re enamoured Pollione joins her declaring your pyre is mine as well There a holier and everlasting love will begin 33 Music edit nbsp Drawing for Norma undated It was Giuseppe Verdi who late in his life made some perceptive comments in a letter of May 1898 to Camille Belaigue fr who had recently published a book on Bellini In the letter Verdi states Bellini is poor it is true in harmony and instrumentation but rich in feeling and in an individual melancholy of his own Even in the least well known of his operas in La straniera in Il pirata there are long long long melodies such as no one before him had produced And what truth and power of declamation as for example in the duet between Pollione and Norma See act 2 scene 3 above Norma In mia man alfin tu sei At last you are in my hands And what elation of thought in the first phrase of the introduction to the duet no one ever has created another more beautiful and heavenly 34 Commenting on the overall quality of the music in Norma David Kimbell states that Bellini s most astonishing achievement in Norma is amid all the more obvious excitements of musical Romanticism to have asserted his belief that the true magic of opera depended on a kind of incantation in which dramatic poetry and song are perfectly fused 35 Additionally Kimbell provides examples of how the composer s art is revealed in this opera but also noting that the ability to achieve a fusion of music and dramatic meaning is to be found elsewhere in Bellini s work 35 Schopenhauer s praise editSchopenhauer claimed that tragedy causes the spectator to lose the will to live The horrors on the stage hold up to him the bitterness and worthlessness of life and so the vanity of all its efforts and endeavors The effect of this impression must be that he becomes aware although only in an obscure feeling that it is better to tear his heart away from life to turn his willing away from it not to love the world and life 36 He praised Norma for its artistic excellence in producing this effect T he genuinely tragic effect of the catastrophe the hero s resignation and spiritual exaltation produced by it seldom appear so purely motivated and distinctly expressed as in the opera Norma where it comes in the duet Qual cor tradisti qual cor perdesti What a heart you betrayed what a heart you lost Here the conversion of the will is clearly indicated by the quietness suddenly introduced into the music Quite apart from its excellent music and from the diction that can only be that of a libretto and considered only according to its motives and to its interior economy this piece is in general a tragedy of extreme perfection a true model of the tragic disposition of the motives of the tragic progress of the action and of tragic development together with the effect of these on the frame of mind of the heroes which surmounts the world This effect then passes on to the spectator 36 Ibsen parody editNorma or A Politician s Love Norwegian Norma eller En Politikers Kjaerlighed is an eight page drama written as an opera parody by Henrik Ibsen It is influenced by Bellini s Norma which Ibsen saw in 1851 but the characters are contemporary politicians The play was first printed anonymously in the satirical magazine Andhrimner in 1851 37 The first book edition came in 1909 and the first performance of the play was at a student theatre in Trondheim 1994 Marion Zimmer Bradley editWriter Marion Zimmer Bradley acknowledged that the plot of her 1993 historical novel fantasy book The Forest House was based on that of Norma relocated from Gaul to Britain but sharing the basic plot outline of a love affair between a druidic priestess and a Roman officer Bradley further stated that in homage to Bellini the hymns in chapter five and twenty two of her book are adapted from the libretto of the opera s act 1 scene 1 and those in chapter thirty from act 2 scene 2 38 Recordings editMain article Norma discographySee also edit555 Norma an asteroid named after the operaReferences editNotes Weinstock 1971 p 89 Weinstock 1971 p 100 Bellini to Pasta 1 September 1831 in Weinstock 1971 p 100 Romani in Kimbell 2001 p 51 a b c d Kimbell 2001 p 51 Sherillo who in Weinstock 1971 p 104 Weinstock 1971 p 104 Weinstock 1971 p 105 Bellini to Florimo 26 December 1831 in Weinstock 1971 p 105 Weinstock 1971 p 268 Weinstock 1971 pp 79 82 Bellini to Vincenzo Ferlito 28 December 1831 in Weinstock 1971 p 106 Weinstock 1971 pp 270 275 Weinstock 1971 pp 107 108 Maguire amp Forbes 1998 pp 617 619 a b Essay on the opera by Wagner in Kimbell 2001 p 51 Friedlaender Maryla 7 February 1944 What Wagner Thought of Norma Opera News p 5 Friedlaender Maryla 22 March 1954 Norma Challenged Richard Wagner Opera News p 32 Rutherford 2007 p 123 n 77 Bret 1997 pp 324 336 Maguire amp Forbes 1998 p 617 Maguire amp Forbes 1998 p 618 Interview between Edward Downes and Maria Callas La Divina Complete CD 4 EMI Classics Midgette Anne 12 October 2010 Soprano Joan Sutherland legendary opera star and bel canto singer dies at 83 The Washington Post Retrieved 24 October 2010 Dinko Fabris La Norma la Repubblica in Italian Bari edition 25 May 2011 p 16 Alessandro Cammarano Venezia Teatro La Fenice Norma OperaClick in Italian 20 May 2015 Remigio also sang the minor role of Clotilde in the Ravenna Festival s 1994 staging conducted by Riccardo Muti and recorded by EMI Alberto Mattioli Per la superdiva Bartoli un debutto fuori Norma La Stampa in Italian 1 July 2010 Joseph Newsome Cecilia Bartoli as Norma in Opera Today 30 May 2013 Jack Buckley Mariella Devia s Norma on Seen and Heard International 16 April 2013 Gabriele Cesaretti Bologna Teatro Comunale Norma on OperaClick undated in Italian Biography Angela Meade Soprano The Theatres April 18 Norma The Illustrated London News p 124 19 August 1843 Libretto p 5 English translation partly taken from 1964 Decca recording with Joan Sutherland as Norma Verdi to Camille Belaigue 2 May 1898 in Weinstock 1971 p 279 a b Kimbell 2001 p 52 a b The World as Will and Representation volume 2 chapter 37 Hanssen Jens Morten 10 July 2005 Facts about Norma National Library of Norway Retrieved 13 April 2015 Marion Zimmer Bradley preface to The Forests of Avalon Cited sources Original libretto Google Books Bret David 1997 Maria Callas The Tigress and the Lamb London Robson Books ISBN 1 86105 257 X Kimbell David 2001 Vincenzo Bellini Norma In Holden Amanda ed The New Penguin Opera Guide New York Penguin Putnam pp 46 55 ISBN 0 14 029312 4 Maguire Simon Forbes Elizabeth 1998 Norma In Stanley Sadie ed The New Grove Dictionary of Opera Vol 3 London Macmillan pp 617 619 ISBN 1 56159 228 5 Rutherford Susan 2007 La cantante delle passioni Giuditta Pasta and the Idea of Operatic Performance Cambridge Opera Journal 19 2 107 138 doi 10 1017 S0954586707002303 JSTOR 27607154 S2CID 191609009 Weinstock Herbert 1971 Bellini His Life and His Operas New York Knopf ISBN 0 394 41656 2 Further reading editCasa Ricordi pub Vincenzo Bellini Outline of his life in English and list of critical editions of his works published by Ricordi on ricordi it Retrieved 13 December 2013 Galatopoulos Stelios 2002 Bellini Life Times Music 1801 1835 London Sanctuary Publishing ISBN 978 1 86074 405 1 Lippmann Friedrich McGuire Simon 1998 Bellini Vincenzo in Stanley Sadie ed The New Grove Dictionary of Opera vol 1 pp 389 397 London Macmillan ISBN 0 333 73432 7 Osborne Charles 1994 The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini Donizetti and Bellini Portland Oregon Amadeus Press ISBN 0 931340 71 3 Orrey Leslie 1973 Bellini The Master Musicians Series London J M Dent ISBN 0 460 02137 0 Rosselli John 1996 The Life of Bellini New York Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 46781 0 Thiellay Jean Thiellay Jean Philippe Bellini Paris Actes Sud 2013 ISBN 978 2 330 02377 5 in French Willier Stephen Ace Vincenzo Bellini A Guide to Research Routledge 2002 ISBN 0 8153 3805 8External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norma opera Norma Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Libretto in Italian on opera stanford edu Libretto amp details incl pages from original score www librettidopera it Norma at the Opera Company of Philadelphia Norma at the Detroit Opera House Further Norma discography online opera guide on Norma Norma a grand opera in two acts 1859 publication Italian and English digitized by BYU on archive org Portal nbsp Opera Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Norma opera amp oldid 1204920192, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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