UK Edition
Why Norma is an operatic masterpiece
The Royal Opera House is putting on Bellini's tragedy for the first time in 30 years. Ivan Hewett talks to Music Director Antonio Pappano about what makes it great (and how hard it is to sing)
Hearts are a-flutter in the operatic world. Bellini’s Norma, one of the peaks of the repertoire, is about to be seen at the Royal Opera House, for the first time in almost 30 years.
The production is by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus, known to London audiences for the dazzling imagination it brought to Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at ENO in 2009, and Enescu’s Oedipe at Covent Garden this year.
Norma is the epitome of bel canto, a nostalgic phrase evoking the operatic culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was the era of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, who triumphed all over Europe. Their style needed a special kind of singer, who could deliver their immensely florid melodies with perfect grace and control.
Norma has supreme examples of those melodies. Everyone has heard of “Casta Diva” (“chaste goddess”), even if they’ve never heard of Norma, and the heroine’s great aria is justly famous for the way it unfurls with hypnotic slowness, arching up to a high point and curling back down with perfect grace. It sounds so natural, but only the best singers can muster the breath control and purity of line to bring it off.
Then there’s the plot, which has everything: love, betrayal, thrilling pagan ceremonies, furious battle choruses and, at the end, a funeral pyre. Even more than other bel canto operas, Norma’s plot is implausible. And yet it’s gripping.
Norma, the high priestess of the Gaulish Druids, has betrayed her sacred vows by bearing two children to Pollione, proconsul of the hated Roman occupying power. He has now fallen for another priestess, Adalgisa. Meanwhile, the Druids are burning for rebellion. Only when Norma discovers Pollione’s betrayal does she let them off the leash – with disastrous consequences.
So why do we see Norma only rarely, if it’s so wonderful? Antonio Pappano, who’s conducting Covent Garden’s new production, has a theory: “I think it became untouchable, because the role of Norma became identified with some of the greatest singers of the 20th century. It was a signature role for Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé, to name just three. They are very hard acts to follow.” Many would say Callas is the hardest of all. Her performance seemed to embody all the vulnerability and heartbreak of her own life.
One soprano who could follow those immortals is Russian star Anna Netrebko, who was originally booked for the role. She pulled out, saying her voice was no longer right for the part. It was the second time she’d let Covent Garden down, and the management’s response was an amusing mix of polite sympathy and suppressed fury. “It created a big problem,” admits Pappano, “but we are so lucky that the wonderful Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva stepped in.”
Yoncheva has won Covent Garden audiences over with her sympathetic and beautifully sung Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, and Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. But Norma is a tougher nut. “Think of the different emotions the singer has to express,” says Pappano.
“Norma is a female power figure, which must have been fascinating to 19th-century audiences, particularly in the UK. This opera was one of Queen Victoria’s favourites. Norma has awesome power, which she reveals when she urges her people to battle in the last scene.
"And she can be furious, like the moment she realises Pollione has betrayed her. But at other times she can be very tender, such as the scenes with her children. The difficulty is expressing this huge range of emotion while keeping the purity of the melodic line.”
Add to these the challenging roles of Pollione, and Adalgisa, and it becomes clear why Covent Garden has had to muster impressive vocal firepower.
“These are all big characters, they need singers who can declaim and hold the stage,” says Pappano. “But at the same time they need to be able to turn those wonderful Bellini melodies, which seem to spin out endlessly. It’s these long, long melodies which make Bellini so uniquely touching, and so different to the other great bel canto composers, above all Rossini and Donizetti, where everything is much more concise.
"You could say that other Bellini operas are similarly inspired in terms of their melodies, such as the Montagues and Capulets (Bellini’s version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet), but there’s an exalted quality in Norma which is unique in his output.”
Pappano has approached this venerable score with fresh eyes. “In the past, the opera was brutally cut. I’ve tried to restore some cuts without compromising the dramatic impetus. Visually it’s going to be a spectacular production which respects the story-line, even though it’s set in a time not far from the present. And it stresses the religious dimension of the plot and the way it can lead to fanaticism.
"I think with a masterpiece like Norma we have to strike a balance between being true to the original, and recreating it in our own way.”
Norma is at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from Monday to Oct 8. Tickets: 020 7304 4000; roh.org.uk