Norma
(Now that I’ve stopped hearing that music in my head, I think I’m ready to write a more or less coherent post about it.)
If music can be described as magical, it is undoubtedly Bellini’s music. His melodies are enchanting… even entrancing for me. Very simple, they just keep flowing through the brain, or rather through the soul, pacifying or stirring light sadness. Earlier, I’ve only heard extracts from Bellini’s works. This May I had the luck to listen to a whole opera: Norma.
The source of happiness is the music department of the local library. The librarians are beginning to remember me. XD If you come early in the morning, you listen to the music for free: an irresistible attraction for poor people scrooges like yours truly. Lol!
Norma in the Sydney Opera House, 1978
(Conductor: Richard Bonynge)
Well, there were two DVDs, and I chose the one with Sutherland as my first Norma because I thought she would be more beautiful visually than the Spanish diva. Gosh, I made a mistake.
The first DVD was something of a disappointment. Apart from Joan Sutherland, there are Margreta Elkins (Adalgisa) and Ronald Stevens (Pollione). The latter was my worst impression. That idiotic proconsul is a character you’d want to slap, but in this case the actor is also a problem (IMHO! IMHO!). He seemed to sing falsely in the beginning, in a weak unpleasant voice. Listening to his first arias was like an exquisite torture for me. That said, I’d also note that Norma is more a ladies’ opera - in the sense that the best parts are given to female voices. So disliking the tenor doesn’t really matter. :)
The central character is Norma, and Norma alone. Here it is Joan Sutherland, whom her fans call La Stupenda. I dislike the sound of it and would prefer to call her Dame Joan, old-fashioned as it may seem, - she has some special dignity about her.
Cruel as it may sound… I’m afraid she is too aged for Norma. Of course the priestess is a mature woman, but perhaps not that mature. I thought the diva was about 40-45, but then I read she was 52! Then I came to admire the brave lady in a way. Her voice didn’t impress me much, but then, she must logically have been in her prime when younger. Moreover, the voice is duly dramatic and expressive. What really irritated me was her accent. (Everyone’s accent, to be fair. The Italian ‘t’ seems an insurmountable difficulty for them!)
Casta Diva - here she speaks of her favourite role and sings this aria
Dame Joan was most moving in the scenes with children (Dormono entrambi), but she didn’t convince me that Norma loved Pollione. Instead, I marvelled how she endured the mere presence of that man. The expression of love in her face seemed false. Perhaps it’s just my personal impression. On the contrary, she is in perfect contact with Adalgisa - Elkins. The singers are at ease with each other. Margreta Elkins is a mezzo with a lovely voice. Visually, she is as mature as Norma is, but her round good-natured face and soft femininity make a perfect contrast with Dame Joan’s somewhat stern features and her poise. This Norma and this Adalgisa definitely match very well.
Oh! Rimembranza
And further on: Di qual sei tu vittima
I had an uneasy impression that the costume designer and the make-up artist did their best to conceal Dame Joan’s beauty: in the first act, her pretty hair is hidden under some horrible headgear, and I hated the wide sleeves and the white dress. Later, in green and dark red, she looked better.
The sets are fine, but not drawing the main attention away from the actors: that’s good.
The chorus, a crowd of bearded guys in horned helmets, was singularly unemotional - many reviewers noticed that, and I cannot but agree. As for the reviewers, I was surprised at the variety of reactions to this particular performance, and their violence. There is a real war at YouTube as to which Norma is the best. Some plainly worship Sutherland in any role and at any time, some abuse her and her fans. Guerra! Guerra! Sangue! Sangue! It is disturbing for me that such beautiful music may be a motive for ugly conflicts. :( At Amazon, there’s also a confusing variety of categorical opinions: some think Dame Joan was ‘at her best’ there, some say she was ‘not at her best’! Most funnily, some guys also say Margreta Elkins is young, and Stevens sings in a wonderful voice! Lol! Hope no Stevens’ fans are reading this?
In short, I wouldn’t recommend this DVD to anybody as his or her first Norma. Well, I was quite satisfied with it - Bellini’s music, after all… - but because of the visual side, there was no trace of an exalted feeling that may come after you listen to a great opera. That happened only after I watched another Norma DVD.
Norma in Théâtre Antique d’Orange, 1974
(The conductor is Giuseppe Patané.)
To say it at once, Montserrat Caballé is one of my favourite sopranos and one of the first opera singers I ever heard of. When a child, I saw a TV programme about her, and the impression stayed: I remembered her wonderful voice afterwards. Childlike, I was surprised by her ‘difficult’ name - Mont-ser-rat! And Caballé to add! - but consequently, remembered her very well. In Norma, the plot of which may be compared to a fairy-tale now, that actress helped to create the impression of a truly magical reality. Add what I said in the beginning about Bellini’s music in general… The version with Caballé was for me an opera of unreal beauty, with a magical-voiced lady in the role of a fairy-tale seer priestess. The photographer did an excellent job, too, so the impression is really strong.
Montserrat Caballé is strikingly beautiful and regal with her black hair and sparkling eyes, in a long black dress. The photography, I repeat, accentuated her good looks still more. Some viewers called her ‘theatrical’. If it means she was unnatural, I’d disagree with it. Well, sometimes she made ‘beautiful’ gestures (all the actors sinned like that in this version), but in general, her demeanour was not affected, but quite reserved, even detached sometimes. For instance, in the beginning, and when she sings Casta Diva, she is very calm (as well she should be). She just stands there and sings it, sings it wonderfully and effortlessly in the wind. That makes the scene as beautiful visually as it is musically. (Only… I hope she didn’t catch a cold, singing in the wind? See also here, A bello a me ritorna) Her Norma is serene, in a sort of a dignified serenity. Still, Montserrat Caballé certainly lent the force of her own character to the heroine, and it is better not to provoke her! She is really formidable in the second act, when she is enraged. And, dilettante-like, I marvel at how her voice can be heard over the chorus and the orchestra in Guerra! Guerra! (she beats on the shield at 3:45 in this clip, which, alas, can't flaunt the good quality of sound). Oh, her voice never ceases to surprise in this opera!
Yet she can be kind and loving (Teneri, teneri figli). I also noticed how, after Adalgisa’s sad aria, she smiled kindly at her, patted her lightly on the shoulder and said something very quietly. Was it Norma, or was it the singer Montserrat? In any case, that was moving.
As for Adalgisa (Josephine Veasey), I loved the voice but disliked that woman with blond locks and white ribbons. She took poses that seemed unnatural and so looked awkward, almost clumsy at times. Perhaps it’s for the best, for it certainly provides the contrast with Norma!
Oh! Di qual sei tu vittima
Mira o Norma
Jon Vickers is a rather heroic Pollione, a tough soldier. Certainly he is more convincing than R. Stevens, though I don’t hurry to join the army of his fans. :) Agostino Ferrin, who sings Oroveso, is very good, and in the scene when Norma pleads her father for the children, they both are able to bring tears to your eyes. Montserrat gives a real sob after one of her phrases.
During the performance, it is all quite dark. In the last minutes, everything is in a red glow. The sets are unobtrusive, and the photographer sometimes made the scenes look like those of a film.
And a little more links:
In mia man'
Qual cuor tradisti
Final scene
With the DVD there comes a wonderful article by Davide Annachini, where he analyses Montserrat Caballé’s singing much better than I could ever do. I totally agree with what he said, especially that Montserrat’s lyrical soprano gave a ‘lunar quality’ to Norma’s arias. Exactly.
Certainly, one always discovers new depths in classical music with every new listening. When I was listening to Norma for the second time, I suddenly came to appreciate Bellini the heroic as well as Bellini the lyrical. His music is so inspiring at times… *feeling silly*
It’s after d’Orange version that I’ve been living with Norma in my head for nearly a month. It’s had a strange, almost therapeutic effect on me. There was a sort of a parallel reality that I kept remembering when moving in the sweating noisy crowd in the metro or boarding the bus… Weird! But it really brought something new into my life and sorta… helped. *feeling crazy* :))))))
I didn’t intend to write this post at all, for, you know, Norma is terribly well-known: what a shame to watch it only now, everyone else has done it, etc, etc. Still, the emotional impact is so great I can’t keep silent.