Bellini: Norma [DVD] [2018] [NTSC]

This is the Norma I have been waiting for. Five stars for production and five stars for the beautiful singing.Joseph Calleja is the perfect partner to Sondra Radvanovsky and a special mention to the sublime Joyce DiDonato as Adalgisa. The minor parts are brilliantly sung with a special mention of Michelle Bradley as Clotilde. The orchestra under Carlo Rizzi make it a perfect performance.

Norma is not an opera that has ever appealed to me - until I watched this! The central performances are top league, particularly Joyce Di Donato, Joseph Calleja and the amazing Sonra Radanovsky - a feerless performance of the killer title role. A slight quibble. the production is rather dark much of the time. Nonetheless this is THE performance to have.

Wow! This was even more wonderful than I thought! I also had another earlier Norma of Radvanovsky, but this one is much much enjoyable because of the supporting DiDonato and Calleja. Definitely recommend to everyone!

Although familiar with much of the music, I had not seen Norma before. Loved this production - beautiful singing all round. Five stars for me.

enjoyed every second

wonderful production and execution - singing to die for

Conducted through too slow. Possibly to make it seem more serious than it is? You listen to it, always imagining how it should have been. Everyone too old and un-athletic for the visceral daft half-plot. Perhaps the pointless amorphous costumes are to disguise this. Let some younger people have a go. A bit worse could be a lot better. Dispiriting to see such aimless expense p***ed away.

While like most reviewers, I think that the actual performance is beyond reproach. But I do have a problem with the opera itself, which many regard as Bellini's absolute masterpiece. Before the curtain rises Norma has had a long running affair with a Roman commander which has produced two children. None of the Gauls except Clotilde know about this 'collaboration horizontale', even though she has been pregnant twice and the two boys live with her very close to where she carries our her religious duties.This impossible situation could perhaps be the subject of a comic operetta, but it cannot be the basis of a grand opera which ends in tragedy.I shall watch this DVD again because the music is fabulous and the staging is very good. But my enjoyment will always be seriously lessened by my thinking 'this could not have happened'.

Norma, Bellini’s most famous opera, is the story of a love triangle including Norma, the druid priestess, Aldagisa, her protégée, and Pollione, a centurion in the Roman army occupying Gaul. For the love of Pollione with whom she had two children, Norma has betrayed her people, but to the fury of Norma, Pollione has fallen in love with Aldagisa. Going through the entire spectrum of emotions, Norma in the end choses to sacrifice herself and protect AldagisaNorma is reputed for the extreme difficulty of singing the title role. The great Joan Sutherland sang Norma with extraordinary vocal virtuosity. In this performance, Sondra Radvanovsky brings together vocal virtuosity and dramatic intensity. She navigates seemingly effortlessly through the all the emotions experienced by Norma. For this production by the Met, she is joined by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, as Aldagisa, and tenor Joseph Calleja as Pollione. Supported by the Met orchestra, this outstanding cast gives a stirring performance of Norma. As usual, the staging by the Met is perfect. Or should I say almost perfect? I found the lighting often distracting, and the dark blue light in the Gaul Forest annoying. But it is a minor fault in an otherwise perfect production.

DVD als Geschenk

Ho acquistato questa edizione della Norma di Bellini in bluray per la curiosità di vederla dopo contrastanti critiche di questi ultimi 4 anni. Ebbene, credo che da gran melomane nessuno riuscirà a farmi cambiare la mia preferenza per Maria Callas in questo ruolo o di Johan Sutherland anni '60 per la perfezione vocale, ma questa Norma è veramente bella, cantata bene, diretta egregiamente, mentre la regia è assai intelligente e credibile e cavillosamente orientata a fare veramente recitare i protagonisti rispettando il "recitar cantando" voluto dall'Accademia de'Bardi ... infatti, anche se Felice Romani e Vincenzo Bellini si erano orientati sulle vestali romane, ancora a tutt'oggi delle sacerdotesse galliche non sappiamo molto, come dei costumi e usanze di questo popolo, sappiamo però che non erano costrette alla castità come le vestali, bensì all'assoluto e sacro rispetto religioso e a avere doti di veggenza e auspicio consultando gli dei e quindi donando indicazioni e riscuotendo piena fiducia dal proprio popolo. Nel complesso questa Norma mi ha veramente emozionato, immaginando il popolo gallico nei suoi usi e costumi barbari di migliaia di anni fà, le voci sono fantastiche, cantano benissimo in italiano, specie il tenore che ben scandisce ogni parola, in particolare la Radvanovsky ha delle finezze canore eccezionali, l'unico neo estetico, secondo me, è la pettinatura troppo contemporanea della DiDonato che stona un po' nel contesto scenico , ma nel complesso è comunque perdonabile. Una bella edizione, sono molto felice di averla acquistata, finalmente una bella Norma.

I confess I was hesitant to offer up 28 bucks for yet another opera blu-ray, when so many opera videos have been so terrible for so many years. I am talking about opera videos in general, and from the Met in particular. However, this is a major exception. I have enjoyed it as much as any of the great Met videos from the past, for example the 1982 Hansel und Gretel, or the 1990 Wagner Ring.Let it be clear this is from Gelb and McVicar whom I don't like, but they have outdone themselves and maybe almost absolved themselves of past crimes ... that's how good it is. It's 100% traditional, no private parts exposed (!!), visually and aurally appealing in every way. If I had to nitpick to demonstrate I'm being reasonable, I would only say the Pollione is not my ideal. He could trade with Flavio. Not to say he's terrible or incompetent, not at all.I have just got off a community run of Norma and therefore very much in a Norma mood; also, in the last 3 weeks have listened to the entire canon of Callas Normas, 6 different recordings of Callas (are there more?) ... also the studio Normas of Sutherland and Caballe. So I feel I'm on an unassailably high plane of Norma at the moment :) And while I don't claim that Radvanovsky is a higher authority than Callas, I can say at least I hear standard Italian from her which is not always the case with Callas.O, shall I also mention the larger and thicker subtitles than I have ever seen on Blu-ray, which almost rival those of a regular DVD, but not quite. The ease of readability of subtitles is greatly appreciated by myself if not by others.There's only one other little thing I don't care for, that's where they put the camera on a crane which occasionally moves around horizontally over the orchestra. It presents a type of view NEVER seen by anyone and is a little distracting.

Bonita puesta en escena y cantantes a muy buen nivel, salvo para mi el tenor Calleja, aunque reconozco que nunca me ha gustado su forma de cantar.