SFist Goes to the Opera: Norma
The SF Opera schedule makes it look like as if, when Dr Atomic reaches the pantheon of the opera repertoire, it will be greeted at the gate by Norma. Bellini's most famous opera opened yesterday at the War Memorial Opera House, bringing back the comfort of familiarity after the more adventurous world premiere of John Adams' composition, and we absolutely loved it.
Norma is the ultimate bel canto opera, this beautiful singing style which places the emphasis on the lyricism and vocal agility of the singer. It is also an extremely powerful story, and yesterday's performance was so gut wrenching it would have squeezed tears out of a rock. Norma is a high Druidess in Gaul who has been conducting a secret affair with Pollione, the proconsul for the Roman invaders. Unbeknownst to the other Gauls, they have had two kids, which says something about the value of togas for maternity wear. As the opera starts, Pollione, in a bout of mid-life crisis, has decided to leave Norma for a younger priestess, Adalgisa.
Photos by Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera. Above, Norma (Catherine Naglestad) and after the jump, Adalgisa (Irina Mishina)
When Adalgisa confides to Norma that she is about to break her vows of chastity with Pollione, anger, despair and wonderful arias ensue. Adalgisa, as sung by Irina Mishura, not only stole Pollione's heart, she stole ours as well. Mishura has a clear, limpid voice, with perfect diction, and came on stage with burning intensity. She made Norma look older and weary during the early scenes. Of course, Mishura is not here to upstage anyone -- her character has to exsude vitality to explain Pollione's treason, and her part is a sprint compared to Norma's marathon, as Adalgisa disappears early in the second act.
Norma was sung by Catherine Nagelstad, a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory. She sang the lead last and earlier this month in Rodelinda, earning praise from our [substitute] opera correspondent Rita. Praises she gets again from us: she builds a steady progression in her role, going from self-controlled dominating priestess to heart-broken fury to sacrificing mother, and she has us all wrapped up in her hand at the end. While she seemed to breathe a bit strenuously in the early Casta Diva aria, eventually we forgot, in the emotions she brought out, about the technique of her singing. Many a grown man was leaving the theater all teary-eyed (in all fairness, the theme of infanticide, which pervades Norma, is quite sensitive this past week).
Pollione, in the famous trio with Adalgisa and Norma, seemed just a tad overmatched. Otherwise, the tenor Zoran Todorovich was an adequate Pollione, a character which does not have the same depth as Norma or Adalgisa. When you want to seduce someone and leave your wife in the process, please remember that the line "It is my destiny to love you and abandon her" just does not work. The choir's power got our hair raising, especially when Norma calls her people to war against the Romans.
In the pit, Oleg Caetani conducted the orchestra at a brisk pace. His energy never went down. One must underscore the lovely work of Julie McKenzie at the flute: the flute is thematically linked to Norma, and the delicate and warm tones of the flutist were a delight.
The set was a rather weird and simple construction. It started with a pile of 2x4s nailed together in a makeshift wall, which represented an oak grove. More 2x4 planks hastily thrown together as a fence symbolized a house, while a third assemblage, this one a neat fence, provided Norma's place. It sounds simplistic, but it did not get in the way of the music, which is all what matters. The vertical set was mostly a pretext to catch the lightings, from Heather Carson, which the program notes declare superbly nuanced. We would agree, except for the side spotlights which would put Pollione's face in the shadow of Adalgisa in their first duet, or hide Norma into Adalgisa's shadow in Oh! rimembranza! It made Adalgisa look like a light hog.
The costumes did confuse us. Pollione looked beautiful, as if he just came out of HBO's Rome. The Druids wore plain white robes, dirt stained at the bottom. So far, so good. But who in their right mind decided to dress Adalgisa with a giant sock? It became especially awkward when Pollione gives her his sword, and her hands were stuck in her outfit and she could not grab it. Luckily she got rid of the clumsy dress, and it revealed a quite sexy outfit (it does not hurt that both Nagelstad and Mishura are beautiful women). And who decided to dress some of the Gauls in a loincloth? Maybe we read too much Asterix, but we did not remember these as traditional outfits. We are from Gaul (ie. mostly France nowadays) ourselves, and we know two things for a fact: the weather is not clement enough for such costumes, and the Gallic genome does yield hairier butts.
Norma
SFOpera.com
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Ave.
Box office: 864-3330.
Approximate Running Time: 2 hours 50 minutes.
Sung in Italian with English Supertitles
This production of Norma was originally created for the Canadian Opera Company.
Wed. October 26, 7:30 pm
Sat. October 29, 8 pm
Tue. November 1, 8 pm
Sat. November 5, 9pm
Thu. November 10, 7:30 pm
Sun. November 13, 2 pm
Fri. November 18, 8 pm
Mon. November 21, 7:30 pm