Norma A two-act lyric tragedy (four acts) by Vincenzo Bellini

A two-act lyrical tragedy (four acts) by Vincenzo Bellini

Libretto Felice Romani

Conductor IVAN KOZHUKHAROV

Director DARINA GLAVANAKOVA-BAKARDZHIEVA

Choir Conductor NEVENA MIHAYLOVA

Artist Ivan Savov

Plastic GALINA KALCHEVA

Concertmaster YORDAN KOVACHEV

Prompter DORA FURTUNOVA

Subtitles SREBRINA SLAVOVA

 

Co-tutors: STANKA ARGIROVA - APOSTOLOVA, OLGA DICHEVA, BILIANA GEORGIEVA, MARGARITA PETRANOVA, MILENA KOLAROVA

 

Production associates:

Head of production and theater master Ivan Furtunov

Head of artistic lighting KIRIL KARADIMOV

Illuminators: TANIA STAVREVA, NINA NEDELCHEVA

Head of the sewing studio KITCHKA GROZEVA

Seamstresses KITCHKA GROZEVA, MAGDA GALCHEV, DIMKA RUSEVA

Wardrobe manager DIMKA RUSEVA

Artist-artist ROSEN RUSEV

HAIR AND MAKE A HOPE TANEVA

Artistic sounding by Veselin Penchev

Multimedia and photo studio NEDELKO BAMBEKOV

 

            Born on November 3, 1801, in the ancient Sicilian city of Catania, VINCENZO SALVATORE CARMELO FRANCESCO BELLINI is a descendant of a family with ancient musical traditions. From a very young age, Vincenzo manifests himself as a child prodigy - legend has it that only 18 months old, he could perform an aria by Valentino Fioravanti. He began studying music theory at the age of two, learned to play the piano at the age of three, and at the age of five, he was already playing more than decently. Vincenzo composed his first six musical works when he was only 6 years old. Despite the veracity of these claims, it is an indisputable fact that Bellini grew up in a musical family and his career as a musician was never in doubt.

            Originally trained by his grandfather, Bellini left rural Catania in June 1819 to continue his studies at the Neapolitan Conservatory as a fellow of the Hometown Municipal Council. Until 1922 he was in the class of the then famous composer and director Niccolo Zingarelli, studying the classics of the Naples Conservatory and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. The Conservatory's custom is to present a promising student to the general public with his dramatic work: the result is Bellini's first opera, Adelson, and Salvini (his only comic opera, by the way), which he composed at 24. The relatively successful premiere took place in the theater. of the Neapolitan Conservatory. In the same year, 1925, Bellini completed his next opera, Bianca and Fernando, which was a resounding success at the Teatro San Carlo, which led to an order from the impresario Barbaya to write an opera for La Scala. Bellini's third stage work, The Pirate (1927), was a bright and immediate triumph, and it was she who instantly ranked him among the greatest Italian composers. The Pirate also marked the beginning of Bellini's enduring and fruitful collaboration with librettist and poet Felice Romani, while at the same time solidifying the composer's friendship with his favorite tenor, Giovanni Battista Rubini, who starred in Bianca and Fernando.

            In the following years, from 1827 to 1933, Bellini spent in Milan, where all the doors were already open for him. The controversy in the press with its innovative style of the opera "The Foreigner" (1928) is even more successful than "The Pirate", which allows Bellini from now on to support only orders for operas. The composer showed a taste for social life and "dandyism", which Heinrich Heine sympathized within his literary portrait of Bellini ("Florentine Nights", 1837).

            Written for the opening of a new theater in Parma in 1829, the opera Zaire failed at the Teatro Ducale, but the following year Venice welcomed us with his Montecchi and Capuleti (a rather loose interpretation of Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet), which Bellini dedicates to his native Catania.

            The next 5 years were the time of Bellini's true apogee, in which he created his most significant works. In 1931, the composer wrote "Somnambula" and "Norma" (both performed with unprecedented success in Milan's "Scala"). In 1833 and 1834 Bellini traveled. He lived in Paris for some time. It was for the Italian Opera House in the French capital that Vincenzo Bellini wrote his last work, the opera Puritani, based on a novel by Walter Scott.

            Bellini knew fame during his lifetime and became more than popular throughout Europe. His operas invariably enjoy unprecedented interest, and their premieres feature the greatest singers of the time, such as Rubini, Tamburini, Pasta, Malibran…

            The composer's triumph was interrupted by his untimely death only 9 months after the premiere of "Puritani". He left London to go to Paris, but never managed to complete his journey back to Milan. Bellini died on September 24, 1835 - only 33 years old - of acute intestinal inflammation in Puteaux, near Paris, and was buried in the largest Parisian cemetery, the Pere Lachaise. In 1876, his remains were moved to the cathedral in his native Catania.

 

History of creation

            After the stormy success of "Somnambula", Bellini is looking for a plot for a new opera. He became acquainted with Alexander Sume's tragedy "Norma, or Child Murder" and, impressed, immediately commissioned the experienced Felice Romani (author of more than 100 opera texts) to write the libretto of "Norma". The talented Romani manages to weave the word into an organic connection with the demands of the bel canto era. The opera "Norma" was born in Blevio, near Lake Como, where Vincenzo Bellini was invited to the villa of the best singer of the time - Judith Pasta, the future lead actress (shortly before that she sang Amina in "Somnambula" ). Together with the devoted librettist Romani, she encourages the composer in his work. Bellini finished the opera in an unusually short time - only four months.

           "To our great surprise, the most anticipated event of the season in Milan failed miserably on the night of St. Stefan, "Bellini wrote to his biographer Florino. On the other hand, the second performance is a real sensation. Norma is gaining its full exclusive recognition throughout Italy.

            "Norma" is the most valuable, most complete, and with the highest artistic value opera by Vincenzo Bellini. This is the opera in which the Italian style, known as "bel canto", is most pronounced.

            This opera is defined as the apotheosis of beautiful singing and an unusual combination of lyrics and tragedy - from the unearthly prayer "Caste Diva" to the final third of the first act. "All passions are modeled through singing," writes composer Richard Wagner, "without being damaged by the grandiose nature of opera. I admire the rich melodic invention around true passions. The score, composed by a genius, speaks to the heart.

 

WORLD PREMIERE

December 26, 1831

Milan, La Scala

Starring: Judita Pasta, Julia Grisi, Domenico Doncelli

 

FIRST PERFORMANCE IN BULGARIA

Varna, August 1972

In the lead roles:

Maria Bohachek, Lilia Dudreva, Todor Kostov

Conductor: Nedyalko Nedyalkov

Director: Mikhail Hadjimishev

 

Actors:

Polyone, Roman proconsul in Gaul

Oroveso, Chief of the Druids

Norma, daughter of Oroveso, High Priestess of the Celts

Adaldjiza, priestess of the idol Irminsul

Clotilda, Norma's friend

Flavio, centurion, friend of Polione

Priests and priestesses, Gallic warriors, Roman soldiers, guards.

The action takes place in Gaul, conquered by the Roman Empire.