Arts & Events

A Glorious NORMA at San Francisco Opera

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Saturday September 13, 2014 - 06:42:00 PM

Vincenzo Bellini’s bel canto NORMA occupies a special place in my heart, for on May 21, 1965, as a very young man I heard Maria Callas sing this role at the Paris Opera in what was Callas’s last good performance of this or any operatic role. Eight days later, her voice strained to the limit, Callas had to withdraw after the scene with Adalgisa that concludes with the duet, “Mira, Norma,” (which closes Act III when NORMA is played in four acts). Callas then canceled the final Paris performance. Weeks later she retired, and never sang in live opera again, although some years later she made a concert tour with tenor Giuseppe DiStefano. In any case, to have heard Maria Callas sing “Casta diva” live onstage in relatively good voice remains one of my most treasured opera experiences. 

On Wednesday, September 10, 2014, San Francisco Opera presented Sondra Radvanovsky as Norma in the second of seven performances at the War Memorial Opera House. Radvanovsky, who sang a sensational Leonora in Verdi’s IL TROVATORE in 2009, topped even that auspicious debut with a glorious bel canto rendition of the Druid priestess Norma. Radvanovsky’s “Casta diva” in Act I was impeccably sung, building from resonant chest tones and arching ever higher with perfect pitch and breath control in Bellini’s long melodic lines, without a trace of vocal wobble. Apart from Callas’s famous version, Radvanovsky’s was the finest “Casta diva” I’ve ever heard, and that includes Joan Sutherland’s two performances here of the role of Norma in 1972 and 1982, neither of which won my unconditional favor. 

In San Francisco, Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducted, and he skillfully handled the changing dynamics of NORMA’s famous overture, which swings back and forth from a military march to moments of tender lyricism and back again. Tenor Marco Berti, who was heard here in 2006 as Don José in CARMEN, sang the role of the Roman proconsul Pollione, who has secretly fathered two young sons with Norma. Berti’s voice in the opening scene and throughout Act I was appropriately blustery, with strong high notes. Later, near the end of Act II, in an intimate and poignant scene with Norma, Berti sweetly sang mezza voce and removed all bluster from his vocal interpretation. This was a wise choice, and it made Pollione a sympathetic character for the first time in the opera, which is how it should be. 

Until then, Pollione has been an opportunistic man on-the-make, abandoning his secret lover Norma for another young Druid, Adalgisa, whom he ardently tries to persuade to go off with him to Rome. Fresh from her recent success in the role of Adalgisa at the Metropolitan Opera, American mezzo soprano Jamie Barton made a sensational debut here as Adalgisa, exhibiting a dark timbre that remained vibrant over an extended range. The scene in which Adalgisa confesses to Norma her in-fatuation with a nameless lover, paralleled with Norma’s reminiscences of her own first experience of love for Pollione, was beautifully sung and acted by both Radvanovsky and Barton. Then, when Pollione suddenly shows up, and Adalgisa reveals that he’s her lover, Norma immediately switches from sweetly com-passionate mentor to vengeful woman scorned. 

Norma’s fury knows no bounds; and as Act II begins she even contemplates killing her children to save them from the ignominy of life without a loving father. She relents and summons Adalgisa, advising her to marry Pollione and take the children to Rome and raise them as her own. Adalgisa, now fully aware of Pollione’s 

treachery, refuses and declares her loyalty to Norma. Together, Norma and Adalgisa sing the famous duet, ”Mira, Norma,” their voices sublimely intertwining in long, arching melodic lines. Adalgisa volunteers to persuade Pollione to reconcile with Norma. Her efforts, however, are to no avail. Now enraged against Pollione and the Romans, Norma sounds the war gong of the Druids’ god Irminsul. Oroveso, Norma’s father, ably sung by bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, gathers the Druid warriors and asks who will be the human sacrifice demanded by Druid custom. Norma points to Pollione, who has been captured sneaking into the Druid temple. 

There now occurs the intimate scene mentioned earlier, where Norma and Pollione discuss, both singing mezza voce, what will happen next. Offered freedom if he abandons Adalgisa, Pollione refuses. Norma insinuates that she might substitute Adalgisa for Pollione as the sacrificial victim, and Pollione pleads with Norma to spare Adalgisa. When it becomes clear that Norma herself intends to be the sacrificial victim, Pollione, moved by her nobility of character, reconciles with her and asks to share her fate. Norma then confesses to her father, Oroveso, that she is the mother of two sons by Pollione, and she begs him to look after her children. At this moment, there occurred a rare vocal mis-step by Sondra Radvanovsky. Perhaps wearied by the non-stop singing required of Norma, (the most strenuous soprano role in all opera), Radvanovsky’s voice suddenly seemed on the brink of cracking. She adapted by switching in mid-note from full voice to mezza voce in a graceful recovery. Norma herself then lighted the sacrificial pyre, a war machine now burned as an effigy, as she and Pollione went arm-in-arm to their death. 

A word must be said about this production’s staging. 

Designer David Korens opted for a unitary set that served as a storehouse for the Druids’ various shields, weapons, and war machines, with doors opening to a stylized grove of trees and a night sky dominated in Act I by a rising crescent moon. A small house was wheeled onstage to serve as Norma’s home where she and her confidante Clotilde, ably sung by soprano Jacqueline Piccolino, care for Norma’s two young sons. 

Costume Designer Jessica Jahn appropriately clothed the men in animal skins and furs, but she incongruously dressed the women in what looked like 19th century ball gowns. To make matters worse, Norma wore a blonde wig in chignon that, combined with her ball gowns, made her look more like the Marschallin in DER ROSENKAVALIER’s Vienna than a Druid priestess in a forest glade in Roman Gaul nearly 1700 years earlier. For his part, Chorus Director Ian Robertson had the Opera Chorus singing beautifully. Director Kevin Newberry made little effort to move his principals, much less this opera’s large chorus, within his unitary stage set. Thus, the staging seemed quite static. In the end, however, with a NORMA filled with glorious vocalism, as was certainly the case here, who cavils about staging? NORMA continues with the same cast for five more performances through September 30. 

Note: On Friday, September 12, San Francisco Opera announced a previously unscheduled cast change.
Marco Berti, who sang Pollione in the first two performances of NORMA, withdrew "for personal reasons,"
and will be replaced for all remaining performances by American tenor Russell Thomas.