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O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
January 28 - February 24, 2017
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O
ne of the most celebrated
exponents of bel canto
repertoire, the late Dame Joan
Sutherland – famously (and deservedly)
dubbed “La Stupenda” – succinctly referred
to the heroine of Vincenzo Bellini’s
Norma
as “the pinnacle role.” She was absolutely
right in that assessment, for there surely
is no greater music for a soprano in the
entire operatic repertoire. At the same
time, no role demands more in technique,
interpretive ability, and stage presence.
Onstage, if every element required to sing
and act the Druid high priestess Norma is
successfully achieved, the singer has indeed
reached the pinnacle.
Norma
itself represents the summit
of the bel canto era. The score embodies
everything this period stands for, in terms
of elegantly sculpted, intensely expressive
melody. And where the two principal female
roles are concerned,
Norma
(1831) – Bellini’s
penultimate opera – probes emotional depths
that its composer never surpassed. This work
will surely leave any listener deeply regretful
about the masterpieces denied us by Bellini’s
death at the pitifully early age of 33.
The composer was the pride of Catania,
Sicily (the local opera house is now named
for him), born in 1801 and the eldest of
seven children. He came from a musical
family, and it was hardly surprising that his
great talent made itself felt very early in life.
By his mid-teens he was already composing
prolifically. Through the generosity of his
home town, he was given money to support
his studies in Naples. His first opera,
Adelson e
Salvini
– undoubtedly immature but already
immensely promising – premiered at the
theater of the Naples Conservatory in 1825.
At that point Bellini’s short life had
only ten years left, a decade in which he gave
the world nine more operas. In doing so, he
created a niche for himself as something of a
musical conjurer. From what seems today like
divine inspiration, he conceived and shaped
melodies colored with extraordinary grace
and feeling that left his public continuously
enraptured. Quite a dashing figure to behold,
he was also notably ambitious and proved to
be an effective and persistent promoter of his
own talents, knowing precisely how to make
friends in the right places. His character had
its admirers (Rossini commented that “he had
a most beautiful, exquisitely humane soul”),
but – being exceptionally ambitious and no
doubt motivated by insecurity – he was also
prone on many occasions to calculation and
spiteful jealousy.
Early on Bellini met Felice Romani
(1788-1865), the most successful librettist
of the time. This was the most significant
artistic relationship of Bellini’s career;
astoundingly productive over a period of
more than 40 years, Romani created libretti
for every significant Italian opera composer
of the 1810s, ’20s, and ’30s. His most
important credits included
Il turco in Italia
for Rossini,
Anna Bolena
and
L’elisir d’amore
for Donizetti, and no fewer than seven
Bellini operas, beginning with
Il pirata
(the
composer’s first huge success, in 1827) and
ending with
Beatrice di Tenda
six years later.
Like
Norma,
the other operas Bellini
created with Romani all have a memorable
Peak of Bel Canto: Bellini’s Incomparable
Norma
By Roger Pines
Giuditta Pasta, the first Norma, and one of her
greatest successors in the role, Maria Callas