Brescia e Amisano
It’s a duet, but additionally a confession. It’s a confession, however neither the confessor nor the confessant are ready for the truths being revealed. It’s a duet, however hardly any melodic materials is shared. The melodies sit low however each phrase begins excessive. The phrases appear to rise in depth whereas being made up of largely descending figures. The cantabile part of Act I’s “O, rimembranza” is an ideal encapsulation of what makes Bellini totally distinctive.
In an opera that has been famous for its variance in progressivism (some elements are totally standard; some, like “Casta Diva,” are completely sui generis), this duet showcases that quintessentially Bellinian manner of fusing melodic form with verbal meter to the extent that we will by no means inform which is driving the opposite ahead. Bellini’s achievement – his resolution to the traditional drawback of texted music – was superbly realized on this efficiency by Marina Rebeka and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, the latter recounting her shameful tryst in hypnotic legato whereas the previous floated discant strains that swelled with craving. Fabio Luisi was in his finest factor — respiration alongside along with his soloists, creating expansive, arching phrases that swirled by the sold-out Teatro alla Scala. For a quick second, I forgot that I used to be sitting by one of many extra irritating stagings that I’ve witnessed lately.
As somebody who (clearly) loves to seek out more and more difficult methods to speak about issues I discover fascinating, I wish to come out in favor of the directorial addition of “historic context.” I like to “contemplate the time and place” that influenced the creation of varied artistic endeavors. I might by no means dispense with such a marvelously wealthy manner of approaching any musical work, notably opera. However, naturally, there are limits to how a lot we will assume any opera will probably be explanatory of its creators’ time/place, and Olivier Py’s Risorgimento-flavored Norma staging at Teatro alla Scala (briefly – the Gauls are “Italians” and the Romans are “Austrians”) which I caught earlier this month left me feeling that the query of “what was Going On on the time this opera premiered” could also be one of many much less fascinating issues to surprise about Norma.
I’m being harsh and to be honest, Py shouldn’t be essentially tapping into one thing novel. Italian opera as a staging floor for idealized conceptions of Italian Nationhood…want we go additional? (Ought to we throw a celebration? Ought to we invite Phillip Gossett?) The curiosity in any such manufacturing lies within the rigidity between these projections of nationhood and our personal preconceived notions in regards to the characters and/or occasions being projected upon. A profitable instance of this sort of projection may be noticed within the reception (in addition to some directorial mountings) of Verdi’s Nabucco, wherein the exiled Jews made for a neat analog of an emergent, yet-to-be unified Italian individuals.
Norma is a little bit of a trickier match for the Risorgimento therapy. On the one hand, the broadest strokes of the narrative correspond effectively. (In the best way that “native inhabitants underneath occupation by an imperial energy” is versatile to fairly quite a few occasions/locations.) The problem with setting it in *this* a part of the world is that Italian nationalism notably didn’t view itself in opposition with its Roman historical past, however somewhat drew a lot of its impetus from that lineage. So, in different phrases, we’re watching Gallic tribespeople take the type of scrappy, proto-”Italians,” so as to defiantly resist towards “Austrians” who now inconveniently bear the names of the Romans, who those self same Italian nationalists revered as ethnic and non secular forebearers?
Brescia e Amisano
Fascinating drawback! One may ask, does “Rome” in a literary context at all times act as a stand-in for the metropole, the “imperial core,” due to this fact can the Habsburg empire be considered a “Rome” in distinction to occupied Italians? Sadly Py didn’t give area to such questions, preoccupied as he was with the remainder of his idea, which introduced Norma as an expert actress (opera singer?) along with her “chamber” scenes happening in entrance of two outsized make-up mirrors. Apart from being gratingly acquainted for stagings of operas with “diva” characters (makeup-mirror Norma was, additionally, the complete conceit of Man Jooster’s 2005 Amsterdam staging), this method confirms the shallower particulars of Norma’s character (she’s magnetic/passionate/ mercurial/extraordinarily jealous of a youthful and prettier colleague and so forth) with out making her notably weak or knowable. I assume we found out what her “job” can be. (No luck for her father Oroveso, sung by Michele Pertusi, in a very nondescript costume).
In Py’s protection, there are few titles that collapse underneath their very own reputations in the best way Norma does. Take into account that this manufacturing is the primary seen at La Scala since 1977. (Sure that’s proper – previously 50 years at Teatro alla Scala there was one manufacturing of Norma and 4 productions of Peter Grimes.) Everyone seems to be fearful of this present! Don’t take my phrase for it, La Scala’s web site copy states Norma remained “on the sidelines [at La Scala] because of the issue of execution or the perils of comparability with epic performances.”
Brescia e Amisano
The opera additionally boasts a important character with one of the intriguing efficiency histories within the operatic canon. A job that has attracted a full spectrum of voice sorts, from the deepest and darkest to the brightest and clearest, some brimming with youthful early-career abandon and others realized with the shrewd maturity of a veteran. I’m in fact talking about Adalgisa, apex of the seconda donna repertory and possessor of among the best melodies ever printed.
Too droll? But it surely feels warranted to make this level when the Adalgisa, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, so totally walked away with the night as she did on this efficiency. It additionally feels apt as a result of Norma, as a job, feels over-explained as we speak. We’ve talked about this already! The Cs, the trills, Maria Callas, “Assoluta.” A complete discursive cottage trade has erected itself across the significance of Norma as a pinnacle of “bel canto” idealism and singerly achievement. It’s Norma, darling. We all know.
As I touched on earlier, one of many nice ironies of Norma’s reception historical past is the best way its hagiography has contributed to its comparative rarity amongst fellow canonical staples. In contrast to different primo-ottocento works that had been maligned for his or her inventive backwardsness, Norma’s relative paucity from opera phases from the late nineteenth century by the mid Twentieth-century (and to a lesser extent, till as we speak) was itself partly a symptom of the “protected” standing afforded to the title position. The listing of nice singers who took on the Druid priestess is haunted by the listing of nice singers who stopped wanting attempting. Renée Fleming, Renata Tebaldi, Anna Netrebko, Kirsten Flagstad. Crucially, the position itself is rarely adjudicated; any failure to comprehend Bellini’s outrageous vocal calls for belongs to the singer. (Not so fortunate, much-maligned early Mozart and Verdi!)
Brescia e Amisano
It might be that one of many side-effects of Norma surviving the Wagnerian Second is that its relative canonical significance was typically debated inside Wagnerian phrases. Take into account W.J. Henderson’s account of the primary Norma to achieve the Met in 1890. Whereas “the old style Italian Opera can solely keep its maintain as an excuse for exhibitions of vocal method,” the German-translated efficiency succeeded resulting from “that devotion and earnestness which mark Teutonic labors in dramatic artwork.” Norma endured as a least-bad relic of a method that had hardly ever been sufficiently Romantic for the Romanticists, even in Italy.
These had been unfair sentiments, however what adopted within the Twentieth century amounted to a kind of overcorrection. Somewhat than a romantic throwback, Norma was nice as a result of it was “classical.” As such, any components that sadly reminded the listener of the unlucky primo-ottocento model could possibly be excised by Tullio Serafin. This seriousness casts an ambivalent shadow over the legendary Callas interpretations, that are marked by their fastidiousness, surgical preparation and musical creativeness however can typically appear anachronistically reverential in direction of the exact particulars of his vocal writing.
However Norma has been de-mystified because the mid-Twentieth century. As a job it has been experimented on from each route; in fac,t it has by no means appeared much less relevant to talk of “a Norma” in the best way Caballe and Tebaldi used to say they “might by no means be one.” It’s a job that has now been sung by Gwyneth Jones, Cecilia Bartoli, Maria Guleghina and Beverly Sills. The query, opposite to what La Scala prints on their very own web site (???), shouldn’t be how “a Norma” compares to a great, however how she applies her expertise to the vocal calls for. Fortunately, it’s now understood and anticipated that the soprano makes use of Bellini’s allowances for improvisation and adjustment to her benefit.
Marina Rebeka succeeded finest in these improvisatory facets of the vocal half. Her recapitulations featured thrilling and inventive ornaments, exploiting her higher facility and steering the music’s momentum in direction of the clearer elements of her scale. The treacherous Cs had been reached with little effort. (She capped off the primary act with a ringing D.) Decrease phrases had been well-tuned however undifferentiated in colour and modestly projected. Rebeka had a bent to entry her high in an explosive method, which served her effectively in additional energetic passages (“Oh non tremare,” “Ah bello a me ritorna”) however created unwieldy moments within the blended excessive phrases of “Mira, o Norma” and the various cadenzas that dot the rating. (For that cause, I typically wished Rebeka would lengthen the identical creativity proven in her recapitulatory ornamentation in direction of the cadenzas.)
Rebeka was warmly acquired for her efforts. It was, total, a brave and full realization of a mammoth vocal half. Her efficiency, although, didn’t have the sheer sense of event as Berzhanskaya’s Adalgisa. There’s something chaotic and thrilling to the pliability and fearlessness with which Berzhanskaya approaches her vocalism (and her repertoire choice). This was not an Adalgisa that was “secondary” to Norma – from a purely sonic standpoint, this was a night the place Adalgisa separated herself from the remainder of the stage. There was a way that Norma’s degradation was inevitable; Adalgisa was too shiny of a star. One in every of Luisi’s higher moments got here throughout Adalgisa’s verse in “Vieni in roma,” wherein he slowed the tempo down for Berzhanskaya to luxuriate in her strains. She already sings the title position in Norma, which lent an intertextual factor to the night’s affairs.
Freddie de Tommaso acquired booed. I do know, I knowwwww. Look, I hate to say it, however somebody has to: he didn’t deserve it and it was most likely as a result of he didn’t take the C in his first aria however he was fairly good. I used to be stunned it occurred, as a result of his efficiency was most likely probably the most “standard” of the leads, within the sense that he approached Pollione with the time-honored custom of “Puccini man attempting one thing totally different.” He added some formidable ornaments in his solo cabaletta and his piano singing blended effectively along with his duo of opposing leads.
Maybe this wasn’t the Norma that the Milanese had dreamed about for 48 years. However delivered some real musical thrills, in addition to taught a number of classes in regards to the limitations of studying Italy into all the pieces Italian.
