De Muntschouwburg has several masterpieces from the opera repertoire that are tried and tested this season. It started with Verdi's Falstaff in September (see KC 30-9-25), now it's Bellini's Norma's turn and at the end of the season there is Puccini's Tosca.
Norma is just about the only opera by Bellini that is truly popular. This has, of course, much – if not everything - to do with the belcanto vehicle par excellence, the aria Casta Diva which, especially thanks to the legendary interpretation by Maria Callas, has become the icon of belcanto. But the opera naturally has more to offer than just this sublime aria: there is the compelling orchestral introduction, the dramatic trio that concludes the first act and the intense duet between Norma and Adalgisa in the second act.
Unfortunately, not all of these assets came across equally well in the performance presented by the Munt. The compelling orchestral introduction immediately shows that conductor George Petrou displays little subtlety in the instrumentation. Unfortunately this remains the case throughout the entire performance. The orchestra sounds mainly too loud and offers scarcely any refinement. The intense melancholic moments do not get their due, for example the conductor gives the lovely clarinet part in the touching duet between Norma and Adalgisa in the second act too little opportunity. The emphasis is mainly on the militant and fierce passages. These are certainly there, with the Guerra, guerra passage in the second act as the highlight, where the choir shows itself at its best, but the more intimate confrontations lose out in terms of orchestral finesse.
Car graveyard visited by singers
The set is kept sparse with a uniformly blue-tinted background with one "scar"-relief (that's how I interpret it). There is regularly a division of the stage into levels. Otherwise the effects come mainly from the lighting and from the cars, which are pushed or hung on stage. That Bellini's opera no longer has to take place in the forest of the druids is obvious, but the direction by Christophe Coppens, who makes outdated and dilapidated cars the main set and prop ingredient, comes across as pointless and offers mainly no compelling images. Moreover, the singers regularly run up against their limits and miss the chance to experience their emotional complexity. For example, the seduction between Pollione and Adalgisa in the second scene of the first act comes across as a conversation between teenagers in a remote parking lot, in a car on a level with no exit… with good will to be interpreted as a discussion that indeed offers no way out. Just as the tangle of wrecked cars can be symbolic of the destroyed passion of Norma when she learns about Adalgisa's relationship with Pollione. But the emotional entanglements to which the two female main characters fall prey unfortunately sink into nothingness in this set. The empty village pub is a sterile environment in which Adalgisa's confession completely lacks the impact of an otherwise essential friendship crisis. That set is incidentally repeated with some adjustment in the first scene of the second act as a railway carriage (with an annoying background of passing landscape images), in which the children supposedly travel to Rome, once Norma has realized she cannot kill her children. That Adalgisa consciously relinquishes her love for Pollione then ultimately leads to the denouement in which Norma identifies herself as guilty and wants to resume her role as priestess. Out of magnanimity Pollione dies with her on the funeral pyre, here thus in a car soaked with petrol that is burning.
Showpiece of lyric sopranos
Fortunately the voices bring solace. Raffaella Lupinacci proved herself last week already in a beautiful recital with Enea Scala in belcanto songs. She is a delightful Adalgisa, stylistically true, with a supple, not too dark mezzo to match the soprano of Sally Matthews. Vocally they play nicely off each other, but it is a pity that the staging is not more favorable to them so that you can also experience them more strongly as characters in the emotional entanglements of sorrow and tenderness. Sally Matthews sings Casta Diva with great care and supple coloraturas, although the extreme pianissimi could have come out better, perhaps also to be attributed to the conductor. Or perhaps she is saving herself for the still heavy arias and duets that follow. The great duet with Adalgisa in which they do not stand as rivals but as women united in deep friendship is a highlight of intimacy and connection. And right there the staging again works against it by suddenly letting snow swirl down, whereby the magic is broken! A concession to the Christmas season in which the opera is scheduled?
Enea Scala delivers a convincing Pollione. As the portrayer of the heroic consul he uses his voice firmly and he sounds decidedly like the passionate lover. He can safely continue as a singer with fine belcanto shine.
Bellini's Norma is indeed an opera that cannot be destroyed, although we would have liked to experience the intense melancholy and passion of the struggle between love and duty in a more convincing performance.
