Sunday Classics snapshots: LIfe among the Druids

The first page of Bellini's Norma autograph score

BELLINI: Norma (1831): Overture

Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Dec. 7, 1955

Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 5-12, 1960

London Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Felice Cillario, cond. RCA, recorded September 1972

National Philharmonic Orchestra, James Levine, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded 1979

About the performances: I really admire the weight that Votto brings to the Overture without stretching or padding it, as Serafin and Cillario do with varying degrees of success. If you want just the notes, Levine's your guy.

by Ken

The plan was different. We've been poking around the 19th-century Italian opera format of the aria-and-cabaletta or "double aria" -- a contrasting pair of arias, usually the first slowish and the second fastish, which with an adjustment of circumstances producing the change allows the singer to show off a wide range of vocal and dramatic capabilities.

We started with Verdi struggling with the format in La Traviata, producing pedestrian or worse cabalettas for the tenor and baritone in Act II, Scene 1, but then last week pointed out that to end Act I he had produced for Violetta what is surely the greatest double aria of them all, her "Ah, fors'è lui" and "Sempre libera."


YOU HAVE TO LOVE THOSE DRUIDS

The plan her was to back up and take some musical snapshots of some specimens of the format as Verdi inherited it, with two obvious choices: the great scene in which Bellini introduces us to his heroine Norma with her grand aria "Casta diva" and our different-as-different-could be meet-and-greet with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The problem is that I got bogged down in Norma, which is actually not a favorite opera of mine but as with his other best-known operas provide clear evidence of the depth and at least some of the potential range of his gifts, which I don't think he himself had yet gotten in hand by the time he died, some six weeks shy of his 34th birthday.

And I don't think we can properly appreciate "Casta diva," the grandest imaginable expression of Norma's role as a Druid high priestess -- a role that, as we'll discover, has come into violent conflict with her (perfectly understandable) yearnings for a personal life -- without taking note of the sound world Bellini created for his Druid culture, and that takes us back to the opening of the opera -- both the Overture and the opening scene, which happily enough for us features another double aria, for Norma's father, the archdruid Oroveso, suitable for snapshotting. Notice in particular the extraordinary opening music with which the composer introduces the Druid presence.

I don't imagine that Bellini approached the creation of Norma with the idea that he had within him some lurking ability to create in music the mode of worship of a society which is both exotic and humanly recognizable. But the fact is, he did. And while sometimes you have to really listen closely to "get" these qualities, all of our conductors hear some of it -- perhaps Richard Bonynge best of all. As for our singers, well, maybe it's unfair to ask those other fellows to follow Ezio Pinza.

BELLINI: Norma: Act I opening: Oroveso, "Ite sul colle, o Druidi" ("Go up on the hill, o Druids") . . . Druids, "Dell'aura tua profetica" ("With thy prophetic aura") . . . Oroveso, "Sì, parlerà terribile ("Yes, he will utter terrible words")

The Sacred Forest of the Druids. Under the oak of Irminsul stands the altar stone; in the distance thickly wooded hills. It is night. Flares wink to the woods. To strains of a sacred march Gaulish troops enter the scene. They are followed by a procession of Druids, OROVESO and other high-ranking priests bringing up the rear.

Aria, Oroveso, "Ite sul colle, o Druidi"
OROVESO: Go up on the hill, o Druids;
go and observe the skies
to see when the new moon
will show her silver crescent;
and let the first smile
of her virginal face
be announced by three strokes
upon the sacred bronze.
DRUIDS: Will Norma come to cut
the sacred mistletoe?
OROVESO: Yes, Norma will come.
DRUIDS: She will come, she will come.
OROVESO: Yes, yes.
DRUIDS: With thy prophetic aura
imbue her, o terrible god;
arouse in her, o Irminsul, feelings
of wrath and hatred for the Romans,
feelings that will break
this peace that is fatal to us.
Cabaletta, "Sì, parlerà terribile"
OROVESO: Yes; he will utter terrible words
from beneath these ancient oaks;
he will free the Gauls
from the enemy eagles;
and the sound of his sacred shield
like to the crash of thunder
will fill the city of the Caesars
with fearful clamor, etc.
DRUIDS: Will fill the city of the Caesars
with fearful clamor, etc.
[As OROVESO and the DRUIDS move into the forest, their voices are heard in the distance.]

-- English translation by Peggie Cochrane

Ezio Pinza (bs), Oroveso; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Ettore Panizza, cond. Live performance, Feb. 20, 1937

Nicola Zaccaria (bs), Oroveso; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 5-12, 1960

Cesare Siepi (bs), Oroveso; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Apr. 4, 1970

Paul Plishka (bs), Oroveso; Ambrosian Opera Chorus, National Philharmonic Orchestra, James Levine, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded 1979

The cabaletta, alas, while it gives the bass an opportunity to show off some declamatory vigor, is pretty much off-the-shelf cabaletta goods, but then the entry of the chorus with the blather about the evil Romans goes right into Italian-ditty mode. I suppose it's possible that if Bellini had live a more nearly normal lifespan he might have gone one much the same way, creating music of an individuality and power unique to him alongside music of utter ordinariness. Or possibly he would have developed a stronger sense of his own genius and found ways of letting that guide him in his choice of librettos to breathe life into and his shaping of those texts and the fitting of the music.

This of course we'll never know, but that seems to me a poor excuse for failing to make the most of the expressions of his true genius in the operas he left us. I have too-vivid memories of attending a Met Puritani -- in theory an opera I love, or at least love lots of things about -- not that many years ago and fleeing for my life when intermission finally came. No wonder, it occurred to me, that most people find the opera ridiculous.


WHICH BRINGS US TO "CASTA DIVA"

Rosa Ponselle as Norma

Thinking of those haunting opening strains of the opera proper and of the endlessly flowing arching lines of "Casta diva,' we might want to remember how much Richard Wagner claimed to have learned about melody from Bellini.

We start with Rosa Ponselle, because really now, where else could we start? We might also remember how cautiously Ponselle approached what would be her most memorable role, in full recognition of its ferocious difficulties. To hear the music sung this brilliantly by a voice of this size -- well, it makes it hard to settle for anything less.

With Callas and Sutherland we face the all-too-familiar choice between the former's dramatic intensity (and frequent vocal shortfalls) and the latter's vocal brilliance -- with a voice that, in her first decade or two of Normas, was of pretty good size in its own right. With Caballé, finally, we have a singer with all the equipment for a first-class Norma but results that, as in so many other roles, have to be classed as, er, "interesting."

BELLINI: Norma: Act I, Scene 1, Druids and Priestesses, "Norma viene" ("Norma is coming") . . . Norma, "Sediziose voci, voci di guerra" ("Do seditious voices, voices of war") . . . "Casta diva" ("Chaste goddess") . . . "Fine al rito" . . . "Ah! bello a me ritorna" ("Ah! return to me beautiful")

The Druids return, with Druidesses, Gaulish warriors, bards, etc. in their train. In the midst of all comes OROVESO.

DRUIDS and DRUIDESSES: Norma is coming; her hair is bound
with verbena, sacred to the mysteries'
in her hand, like the sickle moon,
the golden sickle sheds brightness.
She comes; and the star of Rome,
affrighted, veils its face.
Irminsul flies across the fields of heaven
like a comet, precursor of horror, etc.
[NORMA, her hair about her shoulders, her brow encircled by a wreath of verbena, a golden sickle in her hand, advances to the altar stone.]
Recitative
NORMA: Do seditious voices, voices of war
dare to raise themselves
near the altar of the god?
Are there those who presume
to dictate answers
to the prophetess Norma,
and speed the hidden fate of Rome?
It does not depend, no,
it does not depend on human might.
OROVESO: And how much longer
would you have us oppressed?
Have not our native woods
and our ancestral temples
been polluted long enough
by the Roman eagles?
The swords of Brennus
can remain idle no longer.
DRUIDS and WARRIORS: Let it be raised once.
NORMA: And shattered it will fall!
Shattered, yes, if any of you
attempt to unsheathe it prematurely.
The time is not yet ripe
for our revenge.
The Roman javelins are still stronger
than the axes of the Sicambri.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, and WARRIORS:
And what does the god announce to you?
Speak; what are the auguries?
NORMA: I read in the secret books of heaven:
in the pages of death
the name of proud Rome is written.
She will perish one day;
but not through you.
Of her own vices she will perish,
worn out she will die.
Await the hour, the fateful hour
when the grand decree shall be fulfilled.
Peace I enjoin upon you --
and I will reap the sacred mistletoe.
[She cuts the mistletoe, and, as she raises her arms to the moon, all kneel.]
Aria
Chaste goddess, who dost silver
these ancient sacred trees,
turn upon us thy fair face
unclouded and unveiled,
unveiled, yes, unveiled!
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS
[taking up her chant]: Chaste goddess, who dost silver
these ancient sacred trees,
turn upon us thy fair face
unclouded and unveiled.
NORMA: Temper, o goddess,
temper those ardent spirits,
temper yet their bold zeal,
oh, shed upon earth that peace
that thou makest to reign in heaven.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS:
Goddess, shed upon earth that peace
that thou makest to reign in heaven.
Recitative
NORMA: Complete the rites,
and let the sacred grove
be cleared of the uninitiate.
When the god in gloomy anger
demands the blood of the Romans,
from the Druids' temple
my voice will thunder.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS:
Let it thunder;
and not one of the wicked nation
shall escape just punishment;
and, first to be struck by us,
the proconsul will fall.
NORMA: He will fall!
I can punish him.
[To herself] Yet my heart is unable to punish him!
Cabaletta
Ah! return to me beautiful
in your first true love,
and against the whole world
I will be your first defense.
Ah! return to me beautiful
with your serene gaze,
and, on your breast, life, country
and heaven I'll find.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS:
Thou art slow to arrive,
o day of vengeance;
but the angry god who has condemned
the Tiber will speed thy coming.
NORMA [to herself]:
Ah! return to me beautiful, etc.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS:
But the angry god, yes, etc.
NORMA [to herself]:
Ah! return again as you were then,
when I gave you my heart then,
as you were then,
when I gave you my heart,
ah, come back to me.
OROVESO, DRUIDS, DRUIDESSES, and WARRIORS:
O great day, may the god who has
condemned Rome hasten thy coming!
[All exit except the young novice ADALGISA.]

[recitative, aria, and cabaletta only] Rosa Ponselle (s), Norma; Metropolitan Opera Chorus, orchestra, Giulio Setti, cond. Victor, Dec. 31, 1928

Maria Callas (s), Norma; Giuseppe Modesti (bs), Oroveso; RAI (Rome) Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Tullio Serafin, cond. Broadcast performance, June 29, 1955

Maria Callas (s), Norma; Nicola Zaccaria (bs), Oroveso; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Dec. 7, 1955

Joan Sutherland (s), Norma; Cesare Siepi (bs), Oroveso; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Apr. 4, 1970

Montserrat Caballé (s), Norma; Ruggero Raimondi (bs), Oroveso; Ambrosian Opera Chorus Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Felice Cillario, cond. RCA, recorded September 1972


SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE OUR PLAN GOING FORWARD?

The Norma-and-Lucia plan is kaput, but I think we can still do Norma-then-Lucia, and still have a natural segue from there to Verdi's love-hate relationship with the whole idea of the cabaletta. And then we'll be in position to approach that other example of Verdi's stunning musicalization of ultimate age-related fatique.

#