Norma
Opera in 2 acts
Libretto by Felice Romani based on the drama Norma ou l'infanticide d'Alexandre Soumet
First performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, December 26th 1831
Norma, the great Priestess of Gaul is in love with a Roman oofficer, Pollione, with whom she has secretly had two children. She learns that he is preparing to leave her to run off with another priestess, Adalgisa. Torn between her love and her rage at the betrayal, Norma calls on the Gaulois to exterminate the enemy and imagines revenge for a moment by killing her own children...
Pollione Giuseppe Gipali
Oroveso Oren Gradus*
Norma Hiromi Omura
Adalgisa Béatrice Uria Monzon*
Clotilde Marie Karall*
Flavio Sébastien Eyssette
Conductor Roberto Rizzi Brignoli
Director, set, costumes and lighting designer Massimo Gasparon*
Choirmaster Véronique Carrot
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Opéra de Lausanne choir
Events around the production
Espace 2 programmes
Disques en lice: Monday 26 September, 8PM (rerun Saturday 1 October, 3 PM)
Avant-Scène: Saturday 22 October, 7PM
Work to be broadcast in À l’Opéra: Saturday 3 December, 8PM
Forum Opéra Conference
Thursday 18 October, 6:45PM, place to be announced
Speaker: Paul-André Demierre
Entrance fee: CHF 15.- / 12.-
Conference at Lausanne University
Wednesday 19 October, 5:15PM, Grange de Dorigny
"The true essence of the tragedy. Faces of Norma from Schopenhauer, Wagner and Asterix"
Speaker: Luca Zoppelli (Fribourg University)
Free entrance.
If there’s a myth in the opera repertoire, it’s definitely Bellini’s Norma. The audience of La Scala was disconcerted by the first performance. It was Guiditta Pasta, for whom the role was created, that first struggled with « Casta diva », which still presents a formidable challenge for sopranos today. In 1948, Maria Callas built her fame as a dramatic soprano on her first Norma. Ten years later, the scandal of her career erupted when she threw in the towel at the end of the first act in Rome on the 2nd January 1958. Cleanly, and without vocal excess, Norma sings her moving struggle between private and public spheres.