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January 28 - February 24, 2017
must match her roulade for roulade and
trill for trill. The character is vulnerability
itself, most memorably in confessing to
Norma that she’s in love: “Alone, secretly,
at the temple, I often waited for him,” she
sings. It’s the supreme test in this role –
how flowing, how soulful, how touching
can she make these phrases? In the two
great duets with Norma, the musical, vocal,
and emotional communication between
them must exude the same connection, in
terms of consistently detailed and instinctive
responses to one another, that one would
experience in any true partnership.
As for the heroine – as Sutherland
quipped, “Lord, she never stops singing!”
Yes, stamina is a major challenge to any
Norma. If sufficient voice, technique, and
sheer energy are at work in the singer,
then she can be free to give herself over to
imparting character through Bellini’s music.
What a magnificent arc he gives Norma,
beginning with her opening scene: the most
fiery of all Bellini recitatives, moving into
the most seraphic of bel canto melodies,
“Casta diva,” and finally launching into a
dazzling cabaletta, “Ah, bello, a me ritorna.”
Of course, the soprano’s evening is only
just
beginning
with that scene. As the drama
unfolds, she must sustain an astonishing
level of musical and theatrical know-how
while becoming a genuinely multifaceted
woman before our eyes (and ears): sad
mother, concerned friend, betrayed lover,
vindictive priestess, before ending the opera
with one of the most noble acts of self-
sacrifice in opera. She must draw us to her by
playing the emotions with blazing sincerity,
presenting us with a character whose dignity,
authority, and sheer womanliness leave us
forever awestruck. She is a heroine for all
seasons – indeed, for all time.
Roger Pines, Lyric’s dramaturg and broadcast
commentator, contributes writing regularly
to opera-related publications and recording
companies internationally.
Maria Callas in
Norma
, the production that marked her
American debut and inaugurated Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1954.
Ritual
Maria Callas as Norma, Chicago, 1954
The black pines
gleam behind you like an altar.
As priestess, you are called to express
pain, carnal love, hunger,
noblesse. Your whole life, you have tended
to the sacred dead like a mother.
Their music is your religion.
Your eyes outlined, your wig tucked
into a mistletoe wreath, you pray,
renounce desire, violence,
forgiveness, belief. The cello makes the sound
of night, your lover’s voice against your throat,
though he too will soon abandon you,
another deaf god, the ritual
forgotten, like a human heart
under the grass’s dark chest. The cars
outside the opera house whir like waves.
You walk the lost forest
of the ancestors. The children you protect
are not your own. Your white dress ripples
in the fire’s breath. Tonight, again,
a man will follow you to death.
– Richie Hofmann
Richie Hofmann is the author of a collection of poems,
Second Empire
(2015).
His poetry appears in
The New Yorker
,
The New Republic
, and
The New York
Times Style Magazine
, among other publications.
COURTESY OF TOM VOLF