tragedia lirica in due atti su libretto di Felice Romani, dalla tragedia “Norma ou l’infanticide” di A. Soumet
Prima rappresentazione: Milano, Teatro alla Scala, 26 dicembre 1831
Direttore | Francesco Ivan Ciampa
Regia | Lorenzo Amato
Scene | Ezio Frigerio
Costumi | Franca Squarciapino
Interpreti
Norma | Maria Josè Siri / Angela Meade
Adalgisa | Annalisa Stroppa / Sonia Ganassi
Pollione | Fabio Sartori / Mikheil Sheshaberidze
Oroveso | Fabrizio Beggi / Ildo Song
Clotilde | Fulvia Mastrobuono
Flavio | Antonello Ceron
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo
Produzione del Teatro di San Carlo
By counting on an excellent cast which had the first women, Giuditta Pasta e Giulia Grisi, as its focal points, and the tenor Domenico Donzelli, the composer and the librettist sought a dramatic subject which would allowed them to exploit the vocal and acting gifts of the protagonists. They settled on a work recently performed in Paris and constructed on three thematic nuclei of great effect on the public: the motif of the priestess breaking her vows for love, the topic of infanticide as loves revenge and finally the Celtic-Barbarian motif with the ancient rituals in the holy wood. Bellini achieves with Norma the peak of his own vocal lyricism, affirming at the same time a dramatic strength which reveals itself both in the majestic and vivid clarity of the recitatives and in the solemnity of the choral mass, which represents the background of the tragedy as a great fresco. Wagner, who was certainly not sympathetic to the Italian opera, directed Norma in 1837 in Riga, as proof of his great admiration for this opera. Even Norma’s invocation “Deh, non volerli vittime”, (“Oh, do not want them to be victims”), before the finale, lies at the base of the musical and scenic structure of Isotta’s death.