Opera review: Stirring version of Casta Diva ensures Norma makes for a fine night out
A scene from INO's production of Norma at the Gaiety Theatre. Picture: Ruth Medjber
★★★★☆
The curtain lifts on a scrap-metal rampart, atop which sits a lookout post, a weak searchlight sweeping the dark. In Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 original, the chorus of soldiers we meet are warlike Gaulish rebels, eager to rise against Rome. In this timely and convincing production by Irish National Opera, directed by Orpha Phelan, they appear as a ragtag band of human survivors scanning the horizon for terminators, maybe, after some AI apocalypse, or in the wake of climate catastrophe.
They await Norma, their spiritual leader, to give them the order to fight. But in Phelan's conception, Norma is very much the boss, a Boudica or Jeanne d'Arc, and certainly no mere spiritual weathervane or lucky charm.
When she appears, it is, pointedly, in a general's overcoat. And when she preaches peace and patience in one of opera's most famous arias, – made immortal by Maria Callas – we sense she is voicing a soldier's counsel against war. It is a peculiarly moving moment: it’s hard not to think of all the feckless warmongers running amok in these dark times. And it shows just how malleable opera can be – how it can be reframed and repositioned in relation to the world we inhabit. Kudos to Phelan then, and designer Madeleine Boyd.
As for itself, to hear it live is to witness a thrilling exercise in vocal control and artistry. Georgian soprano Salome Jicia rises magnificently to the occasion, her diminutive frame issuing forth a voice of extraordinary power. By the final curtain, one is left simply in awe at her stamina and vocal agility. Truly, this is the soprano’s ultramarathon. There is perhaps no role more demanding, and for that feat alone this production demands to be seen, and heard.
Despite being here a political statement, there is, naturally, a love story – a doomed one, a complicated one, maybe even a preposterous one. But then, it is bel canto opera, after all. Indeed, such is the nature of Phelan’s politicised framing, it takes a little while to invest in it after Jicia's stunning solo. We meet Adalgisa (soprano Siobhan Stagg) and Pollione (tenor Mario Chang), an enemy Roman who has fathered two children in secret with the Gauls' talisman, Norma. Now, though, he has the hots for Adalgisa.
Falling for a Roman was Norma's betrayal of her people. But she herself is now betrayed, as Pollione urges Adalgisa to return with him to Rome. The irony is devastatingly revealed when Adalgisa seeks Norma's counsel, and Norma fatefully asks of her lover, "Who is he?" Bellini, in a masterstroke, brings back the motif of musically melding politics, war, and love to bitter effect. From this point on, the two sopranos weave through scene after scene, their voices beautifully complementary, Stagg proving a superb vocal artist in her own right.
The Irish National Opera Orchestra, under the sure hand of veteran maestro Maurizio Benini, is fully alive to Bellini's beautiful melodies. Doubters may point to the inevitable jauntiness as failing the drama’s emotional stakes, but that is, as ever, a question of personal taste. And, despite all that, there is plenty of oomph and vigour from the chorus, directed by Richard McGrath.
The second act is perhaps too much at times. But when it is, you only have to remember who must keep hitting these high notes: Jicia. And she more than earns the plaudits here.
- At the Gaiety, Dublin, until May 30. National Opera House, Wexford, June 3; Cork Opera House, June 6
