SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Bellini, Norma: (Concert performance) Soloists, chorus, and orchestra of English Touring Opera; Michael Roswell (conductor). Cadogan Hall, London 27.4.2009 (JPr)


As their general director James Conway told the audience during an appeal for feedback and support, English Touring Opera was founded in 1979 as Opera 80. Its aims are to bring high quality staged opera in English to  ‘a broad section of the community’ that would not otherwise have ready access to such productions. In 1992, the company changed its name to the current one and apparently tours to more venues than any other opera company in the UK. Its usual base in London is the Hackney Empire and they were performing at the Cadogan Hall for the first time presenting a concert performance of an Italian opera sung in the original language. There was an English translation displayed but this was difficult to read and often lagged behind what was actually being sung.

Bellini believed Norma to be ‘The best thing I have done so far’ on completing the score in 1831. It has had some famous admirers and Tim Ashley’s programme note reminded us that Mahler confessed he was unable to listen to Norma without tears and that Wagner was once so carried away during the final scene of a performance that he considered it had been written not by Bellini, but by God!

Felice Romani’s libretto involves the secret love of the seer, Norma, for Pollione, the Roman proconsul, who has fathered her two children. As people do in such stories,  Pollione has grown tired of the aging druid and has become infatuated with Adalgisa, a young temple virgin. Adalgisa agrees to flee to Rome with Pollione, but innocently tells Norma of her love; Norma curses Pollione for his treachery and vows to have her revenge. Norma is about to kill her children, but her love for them stops her and she puts them in the care of Adalgisa with whom she has become reconciled. When Pollione comes to take Adalgisa away,  Norma denounces him and he is captured by the druids after having refused to give Adalgisa up. Norma reveals herself as equally guilty with him and the opera ends as Norma  and her lover ascend into a pyre.

Norma is clearly one of the most difficult roles in the soprano repertoire. It needs tremendous control of vocal range, dynamics, and flexibility  as well as the portrayal of a wide range of emotions -   the conflict between personal and public life, motherly love, jealousy, friendship, murderous anger, resignation to one’s fate and so on. Lilli Lehmann famously remarked that singing the three Brünnhildes in Wagner's Ring ‘was less stressful’ than singing one Norma. She developed what she meant by this by explaining that ‘When you sing Wagner, you are so carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene that you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself. But in Bellini, you must always have a care for beauty of tone and correct emission.’

There was apparently direction of sorts to this concert performance though this was difficult to discern since rarely did any of the principals acknowledge that  anyone else was there on the platform while singing to them. It was only at the end of their duet well into Act I ‘Va crudele, al dio spietato, E tu pure, ah, tu non sai’ that Justin Lavender as Pollione looked at Alwyn Mellor’s Adalgisa but she did not look back at him! This was in fact, the first time that any singer had actually looked at anyone else and since everyone was ‘off the book,’ it is surprising that there was so little  drama to the presentation particularly as there were no sets or costumes and Norma and Adalgisa were in evening dresses singing alongside formally attired men.  In Act II when Adalgisa pleads with Norma to ‘think of your dear children’ she sang resolutely facing forward, right arm operatically outstretched. I could go on … but I won’t.

A lot of this will suggest I did not get much pleasure from this evening which is far from the case; it is just that it could have been so much better. Yvonne Howard’s Norma and Alwyn Mellor’s Adalgisa though vocally rather too close in timbre were outstanding, they stole the show and would grace any staging anywhere in the world. Yvonne Howard began with a radiant ‘Casta diva’ and continued with some very dignified, effortless and controlled singing rising to the challenge of a splendid high D at the end of the trio. Her clear projection was the highlight of a very stately performance full of maternal concern and suppressed rage. Alwyn Mellor’s Adalgisa revealed a rich toned soprano voice with no gear changes in a wide range from a contralto basement to steely top notes. Their voices in their great confrontations, such as ‘Mira, o Norma’, blended well and they presented two very strong female characters.

Sadly,  despite these energetic and focussed performances the principal male singers seemed both  undervoiced and weak in their characterization. The best singing came from Charne Rochford who emerged from  the chorus to sing the small role of the centurion, Flavio. Justin Lavender’s Pollione revealed a voice whose better days were in the past. He sang with conviction but with little vocal elegance: any heroic tone was hard-won and his singing seemed often out of tune. Piotr Lempa’s Slavic tones made his Italian as Oroveso rather unidiomatic and he clearly was forcing his voice towards the end.

The small well-balanced chorus of 8 men and 8 women are to be commended for  strong resonance in their finely sung contributions. But the small orchestra managed to overwhelm the singers for most of Act I before settling as the evening proceeded and  from the mournful cello opening of Act II it gave a much more nuanced account of Bellini’s essentially functional rum-ti-tum accompaniment which demands dramatic expression essentially from the voices alone.

Quite what ETO were trying to prove by this evening  beyond giving opera-goers an opportunity to hear a neglected piece,  is difficult to work out - though perhaps that is reason enough. The cast was not sufficiently special, the two leading women apart, nor was the playing of the 35 strong orchestra sufficiently distinguished. The conductor, Michael Rosewell, seemed to be enjoying himself on the podium and perhaps since he is music director of ETO, this  might explain why the concert was put on.  These shortcomings apart however, Norma is always worth hearing because of its  moments of wonderful music and and its many opportunities for fine singing

Jim Pritchard

For further details about forthcoming performances by English Touring Opera visit their website http://www.englishtouringopera.org.uk/.


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