Norma Page 1

NORMA

Dramatic Opera in Italian

(tragedia lirica) in four acts

by

Vincenzo Bellini

Libretto by Felice Romani after

Norma, ou L’Infanticide, by the

French dramatist Alexandre

Soumet.

Premiere: Milan, Teatro alla Scala

December 26, 1831

Adapted from the

Opera Journeys Lecture Series

by

Burton D. Fisher

Principal Characters in Norma

Page 3

Brief Story Synopsis

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Story Narrative with Music Highlights Page 5
Bellini and Norma

Page 13

Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series

Published / Copywritten by Opera Journeys

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Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Page 2

Norma Page 3

Principal Characters in Norma

Norma, Druid high priestess,
daughter of the arch-Druid Priest,
Oroveso

Soprano

Adalgisa, a young priestess,
friend of Norma Mezzo-soprano

Oroveso, Arch-Druid Priest,
Norma’s father

Bass

Pollione, Roman proconsul in Gaul Tenor

Flavio, Roman centurion,
friend of Pollione

Tenor

Clotilde, Norma’s confidante Mezzo-soprano

Two children of Norma and Pollione Mime

Druids, priestesses, and Gallic soldiers

TIME: Around 50 B.C., at the time of the

Roman occupation of Gaul.

Brief Story Synopsis

The story of Norma is exotically placed in

Roman-occupied Gaul around 50 BC. The primary
theme of the music drama involves a conflict
between love and duty: Norma, a Druid High
Priestess of the vanquished Gauls, falls in love
with Pollione, a proconsul of the conquering
Romans; she has broken her sacred vows of
chastity and borne two children with Pollione.
However, Norma becomes spurned by Pollione,
who has abandoned her after he falls in love with
Adalgisa, a Druid priestess and friend of Norma.

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In the sacred forest of the Druids, the arch-

priest, Oroveso, expresses the Druids’ despair and
hatred of the Roman conquerors; he calls upon
their god, Irminsul, to exact revenge upon the
Romans.

Norma, a High Priestess and Oroveso’s

daughter, cautions restraint and prays for peace;
secretly, she fears for Pollione’s safety, the Roman
enemy whom she loves, and the father of her two
children.

Pollione has betrayed Norma by falling in

love with Adalgisa, a young priestess; but more
importantly, Pollione fears that if Norma learns of
his infatuation with Adalgisa, she will seek
revenge and kill him. He pleads with Adalgisa to
escape with him to Rome, but Adalgisa refuses.
Adalgisa becomes overcome with guilt and
confesses to Norma that she has broken her vows
of chastity and has a secret lover. As High
Priestess, Norma forgives her, but when she
discovers that Adalgisa’s lover is none other than
Pollione, she curses them both.

In despair and near madness because of

Pollione’s betrayal, Norma resolves to kill her
children, but her maternal sensibilities overcome
her and she is unable to perform the deed.
Adalgisa, loyal to Norma, pleads unsuccessfully
with Pollione to return to Norma. After Norma
learns of Adalgisa’s failure she becomes enraged
by Pollione’s defiance. She gathers the Druids and
encourages them to war against the Romans,
declaring that it is their god Irminsul’s wish that
the Roman invaders be exterminated.

Pollione is captured and brought before

Norma for judgment. Norma offers to save his life
if he agrees to renounce his love for Adalgisa, but
Pollione remains adamantly defiant. Nevertheless,
Norma’s love for Pollione is so profound that she
is unable to condemn him to death.

Norma confesses her sacrilege to Oroveso

and the Druids: she invokes self-punishment and
decides to sacrifice herself on the pyres. Pollione

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becomes moved by her courage and his love for
Norma becomes reborn. Both reunite in death as
Pollione and Norma mount the pyre.

Story Narrative with Music Highlights

ACT I: The sacred forest of the Druids

The vanquished warriors of Gaul join their

Druid priests and their arch-priest, Oroveso, to
declare their hatred for the Romans conquerors.
They fervently implore their god, Irminsul, to drive
the Roman legions from their land, and inspire
their High Priestess, Norma, to lead an
insurrection that will liberate them.

Pollione, the Roman proconsul, appears in

the grove with his friend, the centurion Flavio.
Pollione, lover of Norma and father of their two
children, has tired of Norma; he has betrayed her
and become impassioned by the young priestess,
Adalgisa. Nevertheless, Pollione trembles in fear
that his betrayal will incite Norma to revenge. He
relates a dream in which he and Adalgisa appeared
at the altar of Venus in Rome where he was
confronted with a dreadful phantom’s voice
predicting that Norma will avenge his treachery.

Pollione expresses his foreboding of

Norma’s vengeance: “Meco altar di Venere”
(“Adalgisa was with me in Rome at the altar of
Venus.”)

“Meco all’altar di Venere”

In the distance a gong resounds. The voices

of Druids are heard announcing that the moon
has risen, a signal for all profaners to leave the

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sacred Druid grove. As the Gauls throng to their
altar, Pollione proclaims that love will protect him
from the fury of the Druids and Norma.

“Me protegge! Me defende un poter maggior di
loro”

After the Druids fill the grove and chant an

invocation to their High Priestess, Norma appears.

“Norma viene”

Norma is surrounded by priestesses and

attendants; her hair is wreathed in mistletoe, and
she holds a golden sickle in her right hand.

Norma boldly censures the Druids’ war

chants, announcing that the time is not yet ripe to
rise against the Romans, but at the appropriate
time, she will lead their revolt against the Romans.

Norma cuts a branch of mistletoe from the

oak-tree in the center of the grove, and then prays
to the chaste goddess of the moon for peace: “Casta
diva.”

“Casta Diva”

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The Druids, obsessed with revenge against

the Romans, demand that the first victim of their
retaliation be Pollione, the proconsul. Norma
becomes conflicted. She is stirred by inner fears
and emotions. She has hidden the truth of her
secret love for Pollione, and she cannot punish
the man whom she loves so profoundly.

But Pollione has abandoned her. In an aside,

Norma prays for the return of Pollione’s love; if
he does indeed return, she promises to proterct
him from the vengeance of the Druids.

“Ah! Ah! Bello a me ritorna”

After Norma and the Druids depart,

Adalgisa is left alone.

Adalgisa laments her weakness in

surrendering to Pollione, and begs the gods for
their pity, protection, and the strength to resist him.

Pollione appears and finds Adalgisa in tears.

Adalgisa is in conflict. She hesitantly renounces
Pollione, but at the same time she reveals that she
is overcome by her love for him.

Pollione succeeds in persuading Adalgisa to

escape with him to Rome. Overpowered by her
emotions, Adalgisa agrees to flee with Pollione
and renounce her holy vows.

Duet: “Vieni in Roma ah! Vieni o cara”

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Act II: Norma’s dwelling

Norma appears with her children. She has

become troubled by news that Pollione has been
recalled to Rome. As someone is heard
approaching, she asks servant Clotilde to hide her
children, fearful that the sacrilege she committed
by bearing children with the Druids’ enemy would
be revealed.

The visitor is Adalgisa, who has come to her

friend and High Priestess to confess her guilt, and
ask for help and counsel. Adalgisa reveals that
while she was praying in the sacred grove, she
met a man. She continued to see him in secret,
and each time they met, she fell more deeply in
love with him. She reveals that she is prepared to
abandon her vows and flee with her lover.

Norma becomes sympathetic to Adalgisa’s

confession of love, recalling nostalgically her
passions for Pollione. Compassionately, Norma
agrees to free Adalgisa from her sacred vows and
allow her to flee with her lover. Their voices unite
in warm friendship.

“Ah! Sì fa core abbracciami”

Norma inquires who Adalgisa’s lover might

be. Suddenly, Pollione appears, and Adalgisa
identifies him as her lover.

Norma becomes outraged and reveals that

Pollione has been her lover and the father of her
children.

She enlightens Adalgisa, warning her that

he would likewise betray her.

“Deh! non volerli vittime”

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Norma turns to Pollione and vehemently

denounces and curses him for his treachery.
Pollione begs Adalgisa to flee with him, but
Norma succeeded in convincing Adalgisa that
Pollione will eventually betray her.

Adalgisa refuses to depart with Pollione, and

assures Norma of her loyalty; she would rather
perish than take Pollione from her side. As Norma
erupts into even greater fury, Pollione vainly begs
Norma to conceal their shame from Adalgisa, and
insists that the power of his new love is stronger
than the torment of the old.

A distant signal booms from the Druids’

bronze shields, a summons to Norma to lead the
Druids in revolt against Rome. Norma and
Adalgisa proclaim that the sounds of war represent
a death knell for Pollione and the Romans. As
Norma and Adalgisa curse and condemn Pollione,
he escapes, shouting defiantly.

Act III Inside Norma’s dwelling

Norma, clutching her dagger, considers

infanticide as she contemplates her innocent
sleeping children. She has decided that their death
would be preferable to the shame that they would
endure if they remained alive. She advances to
complete the deed, but hesitates, and then
embraces them. Norma has a new idea to escape
from her dilemma, a plan to save her children as
well as her honor.

She calls for Clotilde to summon Adalgisa.

Norma announces to Adalgisa that her own

death is imminent. She proposes that Adalgisa
marry Pollione and accompany him to Rome, but
that she must take the children with her so that
she can care for them after Norma’s death.

Adalgisa refuses, insisting that she will go

to Pollione, but only to persuade him to return to

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Norma. Norma and Adalgisa passionately vow
their eternal friendship: “Mira, o Norma.”

Norma and Adalgisa: “Mira Norma”

Act IV - Scene 1: Near the sacred Druids grove

The Gallic warriors proclaim their hatred

of the Romans, expressing a renewed hope for
freedom because they have learned of Pollione’s
imminent departure for Rome. But Oroveso
cautions their enthusiasm, warning them that the
Romans will surely replace Pollione with a more
tyrannical and oppressive proconsul.

Oroveso rails against the infamy of Roman

bondage, but bids the Druids pretend
submissiveness; with patience, revenge will come
and Norma will guide them to freedom.

Oroveso and Druids:
“Ah! del Tebro al giogo indegno”

Act IV - Scene 2: The temple of Irminsul

Norma hopes that Pollione will return to her,

but Clotilde advises the contrary; that he intends
to abduct Adalgisa from the temple, even though
Adalgisa wishes to renew her vows as priestess.

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Norma rushes to the altar to signal war by

striking the shield of Irminsul three times.The
Gauls respond with a ferocious war hymn as
Norma anoints the soldiers.

Pollione has been captured by the Gauls.

Norma raises the sacred dagger, threatening to kill
him, but she is unable to strike the man she indeed
loves. Norma offers Pollione his life if he will
swear to abandon Adalgisa, but Pollione refuses.
In revenge against Pollione, she threatens to kill
everyone dear to him: their children as well as
Adalgisa. Pollione pleads with Norma to recant,
falling at her feet in tears, and swearing to end
his misery by suicide.

Norma is prepared to fulfill her promise to

destroy Adalgisa, the object of Pollione’s
impassioned love. She summons the Druids to
announce that she has condemned a Priestess to
death for betraying her vows. But suddenly, Norma
is overcome with remorse, and is unable to accuse
and denounce Adalgisa of the crime that she
herself has committed. She astonishes the Gauls
by announcing that it is she, the High Priestess
Norma, who has violated her sacred vows: “Son
io” (‘It is I”).

Norma confesses her guilt to the Druids, and

announces that her own punishment will be death
on the sacrifical pyres.

Oroveso implores Norma to retract her

confession, but she refuses. She in turn implores
her father to spare her children and to protect them
after she is dead.

“Deh! Non volermi vittime!”

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Norma’s courage inspires Pollione, and his

love for her is reborn.

Norma and Pollione mount the pyre and go

to their death together; a death in which they will
be united in eternal love.

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Bellini and Norma

Commentary and Analysis

V

incenzo Bellini was born in in 1801 in
Catania, Sicily, another descendant from a

long line of family musicians. He received his first
musical education from his father, an
accomplished organist, but a Sicilian patron
became so impressed with his musical promise
that he provided the funds for him to study at the
Naples Conservatory.

Bellini eventually became a master of the

bel canto Italian opera genre, inventing a profound
lyrical signature that differed sharply from his
celebrated contemporaries: thenineteenth century
bel canto masters, Rossini and Donizetti.

Specifically, Bellini became the apostle of a

beautiful and sensual lyricism. He was a supreme
and unrivaled melodist, the inventor of a musical
language that encompassed a broad and genuine
emotional and dramatic spectrum; his music was
perfectly designed in structure, aristocratic in style,
and varied in expression. Great singers of the era
responded with awe to the intensive musical soul
of his arias. Even Richard Wagner never hesitated
to be candid about Bellini’s music, commenting
that they were “all heart, connected with words.”

Bellini left a legacy of 10 dramatic operas:

Adelson e Salvini (1825); Bianca e Fernand
(1826); Il Pirata (“The Pirate”) (1827); La
Straniera (“The Stranger”) (1829); Zaira (1829),
I Capuleti e I Montecchi (“The Capulets and the
Montagues”) (1830); La Sonnambula (“The
Sleepwalker”) (1830); Norma (1831); Beatrice di
Tenda (1833); and I Puritani (“The Puritans”)
(1835).

Shortly after the sensational premiere of I

Puritani, Bellini was struck with a fatal intestinal
fever, and died at the age of 34. Like so many
premature and tragic deaths — Mozart, Chopin,
Gershwin — one wonders what musical gems the
world was deprived of had he lived longer.

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D

uring the first half of the 19

th

century, Italian

opera was synonymous with the bel canto

style, a term literally meaning “beautiful singing.”
Three composers dominated the Italian bel canto
era: Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, together the
composers of more than 120 operas; Bellini only
composed tragic operas, but Rossini and Donizetti
composed in the genres of comedy (opera buffa)
and tragedy.

Italian bel canto operas were more inclined

toward an emotionalism that was conveyed
through vocal exhibitionism; bel canto operas had
become showcase operas, showpieces for virtuoso
singers. In style, they were far from the
contemporary grandiose styles of Cherubini and
Spontini that focused on spectacle. Likewise, they
did not contain the German cultural ideology that
inspired von Weber, or Beethoven’s focus on
spiritual values. In general, the integrity of bel
canto librettos has always been suspect; their goal
was pure entertainment through vocal
exhibitionism, rather than an artistic expression
of ideas that stirred the mind.

Nevertheless, bel canto operas were

immensely popular as pure entertainment,
prompting Berlioz to complain about their
composer’s earnestness: “Music of the Italians is
a sensual pleasure and nothing more. For this
noble expression of the mind they have hardly
more respect than for the art of cooking. They want
a score that, like a plate of macaroni, can be
assimilated immediately without having to think
about it, or even pay attention to it.”

The nineteenth century bel canto era, its

second flourishing after the seventeenth century,
began with Rossini’s first opera, La Cambiale di
Matrimonio (“The Marriage Contract”) (1810),
and ended in about 1848 with the death of
Donizetti. Afterwards, the second half of the
nineteenth century was dominated by the operatic
spectacles of Auber and Meyerbeer, the powerful
passions portrayed in Verdi’s operas, and the
music dramas of Wagner. By the close of the

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nineteenth century bel canto had lost favor with
the opera public; most bel canto operas were rarely
performed, and only a handful survived during the
century, among them, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di
Siviglia (“The Barber of Seville”), Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, L’Elisir
d’Amore (“The Elixir of Love”), and Bellini’s
Norma. In the twentieth century, bel canto would
experience a phenomenal revival as their inherent
dramatic truths became rediscovered by a host of
celebrated virtuoso singers: among them, Maria
Callas, Joan Sutherland, Alfredo Krauss, Cecilia
Bartoli, and Jeniffer Larmore.

In the Italian bel canto style of the first half

of the nineteenth century — the primo ottocento
— the primary focus and concentration of opera
composers was to compose beautiful and virtuoso
melodies. In bel canto, the voice served to convey
the dramatic elements of the story, its inherent
drama expressed chiefly through the inflection of
the vocal line. As such, passages achieved their
dramatic poignancy and eloquence through the
dynamics of being turned and twisted, stretched,
speeded up or slowed down.

So the primary focus of the bel canto genre

was vocal virtuosity and vocal acrobatics. To a
large extent, that ideal of the supremacy of the
voice in opera was a legacy from the seventeenth
century castratos, singers who were not only
opera’s superstars, but outstanding technicians
who melted their audiences with their impassioned
bravura, technical fireworks, and vocal purity.
Often, the terms bel canto and coloratura are used
interchangeably, but primarily, they both stress
spectacular vocal displays and an elaborate and
brilliant ornamentation of the vocal line. In bel
canto, the singer dominated; opera was a
showcase for showpieces, and even the orchestra
was subdued to accommodate the singer’s artistry.

As the first half of the nineteenth century

unfolded, that legacy of vocal brilliance continued
to dominate and remain the preeminent feature of

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the operatic art form. But most bel canto operas
were hastily composed, and in most cases, the
drama and dramatic continuity of their underlying
librettos were secondary considerations; many —
but not all — of the librettos are deemed humdrum
and hackneyed by today’s music drama standards,
even though many of these bel canto librettos were
written by talented and original craftsmen — as
well as hacks. Nevertheless, it has become the
freshness of bel canto’s underlying music that
has compelled many opera-goers to simply
overlook the librettos. Indeed, modern champions
of the bel canto school have proven through their
vocal artistry that there is much more drama and
emotional truth in some of these operas than had
ever been suspected. Certainly, during the
twentieth century revival of bel canto, Maria
Callas became a role model for the vocal
generations who followed her, and she may have
single-handedly rejuvenated the art of bel canto
singing as well as the operas associated with the
genre. Callas provided an amazing vitality and
artistry in her delivery of bel canto texts, as well
as in conveying the dramatic and emotional truth
of the music. If anything, she stressed the necessity
of the bel canto singer to act with the voice, the
art of making every note, dramatic phrase, or
dramatic gesture meaningful.

The bel canto style requires a beautiful,

warm, full and sustained sound, a virtuoso mastery
of technique to deliver its rapidly moving passages
and ornamentation, a precision in Italian diction,
preeminent musicianship, and a thorough
technical skill for improvisation. That virtuosity
is necessary to deliver arias in slow tempo that
feature long, sustained vocal lines and subtle
intricacies in their ornamentation, as well as fast
arias that feature springing rhythm and brilliant
coloratura.

Certain vocal techniques are de rigeur:

legato, the idea of “tieing” or “binding” notes to
one another, and portamento, “carrying” the voice
through tones that glide through the intermediate

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pitches between two written notes without resting
on any. Richard Wagner, no friend to the Italian
bel canto school of opera, indeed contributed his
own insight to the ideals of the “old and noble
Italian school of singing,” commenting that “The
basis of all expression is an equally sustained
tone.... The manifold modifications of tonal power,
which constitute one of the principal elements of
musical expression that rest upon it.”

In that coloratura, or fioritura style, singing

required decoration, ornamentation, elaborate
passing tones, turns and trills. To add further color,
appoggiaturas became popular: the idea of
“leaning” on a dissonant note, or evolving from a
strong beat and resolving on a weaker beat.
Likewise, the bel canto singers embellished their
treatment of chromatic notes with extra half-steps
that do not appear in the prevailing scale of the
piece, but were introduced for added color and
displays of virtuosity.

Cadenzas, or freely displayed passages at

the close of an aria involve some modulating
passage and always finish with a long trill on the
note just above the final keynote, or less often, the
leading-tone, just below. Two-octave-plus spans
in bel canto are routine; that spread, the tessitura,
provides vocal color in the extremely high register.
In essence, the bel canto artist uses every
conceivable vocal invention necessary to
mesmerize its audiences: trills, cadenzas,
appoggiaturas, and portamentos.

Bel canto operas dutifully follow a structural

formula that relies heavily on the devices of the
cavatina and cabaletta. Cavatina, a diminutive
of the Italian cavata, meaning “extraction,” is an
arioso, or short aria at the end of a recitative, its
melody being “carved out” of the preceding music.
Cavatinas are generally single-part, relatively
simple short arias in slow or sustained tempos,
but lyrical and long-phrased: they usually express
sorrow and anguish, enabling the singer to
conspicuously display varying vocal talents and
abilities, but always demanding phrases that

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possess beauty of tone, nuance and color.
Cavatinas often follow the cabaletta, a fast section
in which the virtuosity of the singer and technical
fireworks are brought into full focus: generally,
the dramatic effect is achieved through
acceleration that serves to express the character’s
determination to do something about his or her
dilemma that had been previously expressed in
the cavatina. Although cavatinas and cabalettas
dominate the bel canto operatic structure, their
execution requires the singer to display
combinations of a flawless and brilliant technique,
as well as tastefulness in embellishment and
ornamentation.

A

fter the triumph of La Sonnambula in 1831,

Bellini agreed to compose a new opera for

the next carnival season at La Scala. He was
fortunate in having as his librettist the best Italian
theatrical poet of the day, Felice Romani, his
librettist for the earlier Il Pirata (1827), and the
later La Sonnambula.

For their new opera, Bellini and Romani

decided to adapt the play, Norma, ou L’Infanticide
(“Norma, or the Infanticide”), by the French
dramatist Alexandre Soumet, also renowned as the
co-librettist for Rossini’s Le Siège de Corinthe
(1826). Romani was determined to add more
dramatic poignancy to Soumet’s story, so he
incorporated elements from several other works:
Jouy’s libretto for Spontini’s La vestale (1807),
Chateaubriand’s novel Les Martyrs, Romani’s
own earlier libretto dealing with infanticide,
Medea in Corinto written for Mayr (1813), and
La Sacerdotessa d’Irminsul (“The Priestess of
Irminsul”), written for Pacini (1820).

Oroveso was elevated from an avenging

Gallic warrior to Norma’s father, thus providing
moments of fatherly love and compassion. But in
many senses, Romani Christianized certain basic
elements of the original story. The Norma in its

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literary antecedents was a savage and murderous
pagan priestess. In the Bellini-Romani opera
version, Norma is given a soul: she contemplates
infanticide but cannot bring herself to the deed;
she contemples killing both Adalgisa and Pollione,
and likewise cannot act. In the opera version of
the story, Norma possesses a higher self, an inner
morality that prevents her from violent and
irrational acts.

The reception to Norma’s premiere on

December 26, 1831 was cold. Bellini responded
with bitterness, writing to a friend that “the first
performance of Norma was, would you believe it,
a dismal fiasco!!! I tell you truly, the audience
.....seemed to me to want my poor Norma to suffer
the same fate as the Druid priestess….” Bellini
was frustrated and chagrined that the Milanese
public did not applaud Norma with the same
enthusiasm that they had greeted his earlier operas,
Il Pirata, La Straniera, and La Sonnambula, even
though he thought he had assured success for the
opera by composing the title role for the then
renowned soprano, Giuditta Pasta.

Bellini suspected skulduggery, alleging that

the antagonism to his opera emanated from a
formidable faction that was supported by the
mistress of his rival, Giovanni Pacini, whose opera
Il Corsaro was about to premiere at La Scala.
Nevertheless, after 39 subsequent performances
of Norma at La Scala during its premiere season,
enormous enthusiasm gathered. After its presumed
unsuccessful premiere, Norma quickly became
popular. It was immediately staged at Naples,
Bergamo, Venice, Rome, and outside of Italy, in
Vienna and London. By the end of the nineteenth
century, Norma had become the most popular of
Bellini’s operas, and many considered it Bellini’s
masterpiece and tour de force: an opera that
represented the ultimate flowering of the bel canto
tradition.

Wagner conducted Norma at Riga in 1837,

and when in Paris in 1839, wrote an additional
aria for the opera that was never performed:
“Norma il predisse” for the bass role of Oroviso.

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Norma was the inaugural opera at the New

York Academy of Music in 1854, sung in English.
The first performance at the Metropolitan Opera
took place in 1890 (in German), with Lilli
Lehmann in the title role. Maria Callas made her
London debut in Norma at Covent Garden in 1952,
her American debut at Chicago in 1954, and later
at the Metropolitan Opera in 1956.

And, among the many accolades to this

opera, Bellini’s Norma has entered the
international cuisine as “Pasta alla Norma,” a
culinary testament that derives from Catania,
Sicily, Bellini’s birthplace; Bellini’s fellow
townspeople consider it a fitting tribute to their
native son’s greatness, as well as to his opera.

T

he story of Norma takes place in ancient Gaul:

the French Gaule, or Latin Gallia, a region

comprising modern-day France, areas of Belgium,
western Germany, and northern Italy. The
inhabitants of Gaul were Celts, a race of early
Indo-European peoples, who, by the fifth century
B.C., had established themselves in part of the
British Isles, Spain, and Asia Minor. They were
an agricultural society that was divided into
several tribes and ruled by a landed class.

The Romans called the region of Italy

occupied by the Gauls “Cisalpine Gaul” ( “Gaul
this side of the Alps.”) In 390 B.C., the Gauls
seized and plundered the city of Rome, which
humiliated the Romans and subsequently
precipitated wars of revenge. In a series of
confrontations, the Romans defeated the Gaul
tribes, dispersed them into a buffer zone of
colonies, and by the end of the Punic Wars, had
totally prevailed, subjugating and colonizing all
of “Cisalpine Gaul.”

By the second century B.C., the Romans

extended their territory across the Alps into the
Gallic regions of southern France; by making
alliances, they controlled most of the commerce

Norma Page 21

in that part of the Mediterranean. Julius Caesar,
the principal source of information about the
Druids in Gaul, in 58-50 B.C., responded to a new
wave of revolts by initiating invasions into Gaul,
ultimately suppressing the revolts and conquering
all of the territories. Nevertheless, Caesar treated
the Gauls generously, leaving their cities with a
significant measure of autonomy, and thus
securing Gallic allegiance for his civil wars against
Pompey in 49-45. The Romans built towns and
roads throughout Gaul and taxed the old Gallic
landowning class and nobles, but at the same time
they promoted the development of a middle class
of merchants and tradesmen. In 41-54 A.D., the
emperor Claudius assimilated the Gallic
aristocracy as Roman citizens, made them eligible
for seats in the Roman Senate, and appointed them
to governing posts in Gaul.

The priesthood of the Gauls, like Oroveso

and Norma in Bellini’s opera story, were Druids:
in Celtic, Druid has been variously interpreted as
“Knowing” or “Finding the Oak Tree.” The
ancient Celtic Druids were considered a learned
class of teachers and judges who assumed control
of public and private sacrifices, actively educated
their people, judged all public and private quarrels,
and decreed punishment and penalties for
transgressions. One Druid was made the chief, or
arch-Druid; upon his death, another was
appointed.

The Druid principal god was Irminsul, who

appears prominently in the Norma story. Irminsul,
derived from the Saxon language, was their
principal deity, but one with many divine
attributes: he was a war god, the supporter of the
pillars of the heavens, and also a fertility god
responsible for all growth as well as the continued
maintenance of life. The goddess of childbirth
would receive the souls of unborn children from
Irminsul, while he would take the souls of the
departed to the realm of the dead. A principal
Druid religious belief was that the soul was
immortal and passed at death from one person into

Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Page 22

another: Norma’s contemplation of infanticide, as
well as her own suicide, although horrifying, bears
transcendent meaning within the interpretation of
Druidian theology.

T

he role of Norma is emotionally concentrated:

she quickly vacillates between violent rages

of jealousy and revenge, to love and tenderness.
Norma is a woman possessing complex attributes:
she is lover, friend, mother, priestess and victim.

In Norma, Bellini proved that he was the

ultimate musical dramatist. His noble heroine is
subjected to overwhelming dramatic conflicts and
tensions, and her powerful characterization and
willpower influence every element of the plot; she
is extremely forceful, mature and omniscient, and
a delicate contrast to the inexperienced younger
priestess, Adalgisa.

Norma’s tragedy lies in her fatal love for an

enemy of her people, a classic conflict, like in
Verdi’s later Aida, between love and duty. Bellini
marvelously portrays the many different aspects
of Norma’s temperament and character, not only
in the centerpiece aria “Casta diva,” but also in
the superb duets and trios with Adalgisa and
Pollione. As such, the title role of Norma is one
of the most taxing and wide-ranging vehicles in
the entire repertory, a demanding bel canto role
that incorporates every virtuoso requirement of the
genre: vocal bravura, technical fireworks, and
vocal ornamentation.

B

ellini, a sublime melodist, possessed supreme
gifts to create melody that was pure in style,

and sensuous in its expression. Throughout the
score of Norma, Bellini’s melodic inventions are
enthralling, abounding with confidence, variety,
and sheer beauty.

The music is saturated with elaborate and

brilliant coloratura sections, as well as a
demanding high tessitura, especially for the

Norma Page 23

soprano and tenor voices. Although so many bel
canto operas were traditionally mere vehicles to
exhibit a singer’s virtuosity, Norma’s libretto adds
the dimension of being a fine drama; its text was
not a secondary consideration, and its music and
text, in comparison to other bel canto operas, are
dramatically integrated. That close relationship
between music and text so impressed Bellini’s
contemporaries that they often called his music
filosofica. As such, in Norma, Bellini remained
true to his ultimate objective: “to introduce a new
genre and a music which should express the text
as closely as possible, and provide a unity of its
song and drama.” Generations later, in 1880, even
Wagner was won over to Bellini’s incredible
lyricism: “Bellini’s music comes from the heart,
and it is intimately united with the text.”

So each scene’s intellectual content and

mood are explicitly interpreted by the music. But
it was Bellini’s treatment of his texts with such
heretofore unknown seriousness that provides the
difference in Norma, in part the composer’s revolt
against Rossini’s frequent nonchalance. In
Bellini’s melodies, the text is precisely declaimed,
and verbal and musical accents normally coincide,
a technique that tended to lessen the number and
the extent of coloratura passages. As a result,
critics began to speak of Bellini’s style as
“declamazione cantata,” or “canto declamato”: a
“declaimed song” or “speech song.”

Obviously, Bellini needed good librettos and

verses to fire his imagination and integrate those
texts into dramatically intense situations. The
result became thrilling moments that would
portray lively passions. Bellini’s operas in general
represent sequences of scenes, each depicting
particular emotions, but not always
psychologically connected. And in general,
characterizations are not complex or
multidimensional: a villain expresses evil, and a
romantic aria expresses love.

Bellini expressed his conceptions of opera

in a letter to Count Pepoli in early 1834: “Opera,

Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Page 24

through singing, must make one weep, shudder,
die.” In that context, Bellini’s operatic ideals
preceded and inspired Verdi as he entered his
middle period (1850), that moment when he was
seeking more passionate operatic subjects. In
Italian opera, the development of multifaceted
operatic characterizations would begin decades
later: during the Verdi’s middle and late periods,
1850 through 1888, and during the late nineteenth

h

century verismo (realism) period.

T

he masterly Overture to Norma immediately
evokes the somber mood of the opera: in the

orchestral introduction, the theme from Oroveso’s
cavatina is heard, “Ite sul colle,” prompting Verdi
to comment that no one had ever created a phrase
“more beautiful and heavenly.” In its appearance
during the first act, Oroveso’s grave cavatina is
followed by the male Druid chorus in a martial
cabaletta, “Dell’aura tua profetica,” a conclusion
to the scene that is majestic in stature.

Pollione’s description to his colleague Flavio

of his dream of a vengeful Norma, “Meco all’altar
di Venera,” is tranquil in mood, but when he is
interrupted by the Druids’ sacred song, he launches
into a cabaletta that expresses his passion: “Me
protegge, me difende.”

The chorus of Druids, “Norma viene,” is in

a march rhythm and precedes Norma’s
commanding recitative, “Sediziose voci,” its first
phrases unaccompanied. But that leads to Norma’s
great andante aria, “Casta Diva,” the long, gently,
undulating line of its enchanting melody first
introduced by a solo flute. The aria’s delicate
fioritura decorate the second strophe which has
been compared to, and considered by some to have
influenced nocturnes of Chopin.

Norma’s “Casta diva” aria is the centerpiece

of the opera, and as such, it bears many legends.
At the premiere, Bellini transposed the aria down
from its original key of G to F in order to
accommodate the principal singer, the renowned

Norma Page 25

Giuditta Pasta for the opera was composed.
Nevertheless, Pasta refused to sing the “Casta
Diva,” finding it unsuited to her style. However,
Bellini persuaded her to study it for a week, and if
she still refused, he promised to write a new aria
for her. By the end of the week Pasta had
surrendered to the fascination of the aria and sent
Bellini two gifts, together with a note of apology
in which she modestly described herself as “little
equipped to perform your sublime harmonies.”

The “Casta Diva” contains a rudimentary

orchestral accompaniment and fairly simple
harmony; it is homophonic and with almost no
counterpoint or countermelodies. There is some
doubling of the vocal line in the orchestra, but
mostly there is chordal accompaniment for the
vocal line. Accompaniments were traditionally
light in bel canto operas; these were singer’s
showcases, and it was not the composer’s intention
to interfere with the singer.

Adalgisa is introduced in a solo scene that

begins with a highly expressive recitative that is
followed by her intense allegro duet with Pollione,
“Va crudele.” Later, the moving Norma-Adalgisa
duet, “Sola, furtiva, al tempio,” begins with one
of Bellini’s most elegiac and melancholy melodic
inventions, but quickly transforms into a more
animated second section, “Ah, sì, fa core,
abbracciami,” the two soprano’s voices blending
in triads, and concluding with a cadenza, again
with voices in triads.

Act I concludes with the superb trio, “Oh!

Di qual sei tu vittima,” in which Norma, Adalgisa,
and Pollione confront each other, but very quickly
the sopranos vent their anger with impassioned
curses at the perfidious Pollione.

After Act II’s brooding orchestral prelude,

there is an expressive recitative in which Norma
contemplates killing her children, broadening into
the arioso, “Teneri figli,” a repetition of the theme
heard in the prelude. The following scene contains
the moving andante duet between Norma and

Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Page 26

Adalgisa, “Mira, o Norma,” with its equally
affecting cabaletta, “Sì, fino all’ore,” in which the
two women swear eternal friendship, their voices
again blending in voluptuous harmony.

“Non partì,” the chorus of Gallic warriors,

contains echoes of Beethoven. The vigorous
chorus, “Guerra, guerra,” in which the warriors
prepare for battle after being incited by Norma,
proves that Bellini was not just a composer of
languorous melodies; its concluding phrases
possess a mood of religious awe.

In the climax of the opera, the great duet,

“In mia man alfin tu sei,” Bellini rises to
unprecedented heights in the skill in which he
weaves the tense dialogue into a melodic whole:
Norma has summoned the Druids and confessed
her sin, and then launches the finale with the
intensely moving melody of “Qual cor tradisti,
qual cor persesti,” in which she is gradually joined
by Pollione, Oroveso, and the Druids. After
Norma’s last anguished solo, “Deh! Non volerli
vittime,” the swelling ensemble intensifies
dramatically as Norma and Pollione are led to the
funeral pyre, the opera concluding with a sublime
unity of event and music.

T

héophile Gautier wrote in an essay about

Bellin’s Norma: “from the moment when

Norma confesses her guilt, it is one of the finest
things in all musico-dramatic literature. The
thought is sublime, and the layout for voice and
orchestra equally admirable. It is restrained and
masterly writing that has not been surpassed by
any other composer.”

Bellini’s orchestrations are hardly complex,

but always appropriate. Bizet was once asked by
a French publisher to reorchestrate the score; he
discovered that the task was neither possible nor
necessary. Even Wagner, no friend of Italian bel
canto opera — the gossamer that was at the core
of his crusade for transformation — wrote of

Norma Page 27

Norma that he admired “the rich melodic vein
expressing the most intimate passions with a sense
of profound reality: a great score that speaks to
the heart and is a work of genius.”

Bellini knew the worth of his Norma: “If I

were shipwrecked, I would leave all of my other
operas and try to save Norma.” Sixty years later,
Verdi commented: “Even in Bellini’s lesser known
operas, La Straniera and Il Pirata, there are long,
long melodies such as no one before him had ever
written. What truth and power there is in his
declamation, in for example, the duet between
Norma and Pollione. What loftiness of thought in
the first phrase of the introduction to Norma, and
another, no less sublime, a few bars later. Badly
orchestrated perhaps, but beautiful, heavenly,
beyond reach of any other mortal.”

Bellini’s Norma remains a jewel of Italian

bel canto lyric theater. The opera has held the stage
for over 200 years, continually rejuvenated by
singers who discover its musical and dramatic
greatness, as well as audiences who become
inspired by its sublime lyric beauty.