NORMA

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835)
Opera in two acts in Italian
Libretto: Felice Romani
Premièr at Teatro alla Scala, Milan – 26 December 1831
13†, 16, 19, 24 January - 05, 10, 14, 25 February 1965
Teatro alla Scala, Milano

Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Chorus master: Roberto Benaglio
Stage director: Margherita Wallmann
Scene and costumes: Salvatore Fiume

Pollione Roman Pro-consul in Gaul BRUNO PREVEDI tenor
Oreveso Archdruid father of Norma NICOLA ZACCARIA bass
Norma High priestess of the druidical temple LEYLA GENCER soprano
Adalgisa a virgin of the temple GIULIETTA SIMIONATO mezzo-soprano
Clotilde Norma’s confidante LUCIANA PICCOLO soprano
Flavio a centrurion PIERO DE PALMA tenor

Time: About 50 B.C.
Place: Gaul

† Recording date

Photos © ERIO PICCAGLIANI, Milano 

Drawings ©  SALVATORE FIUME

 














CORRIERE DELLA SERA                                              
1965.01.09


LA STAMPA                                                
1965.01.09

AVANTI                                                 
1965.01.10
CORRIERE DELLA SERA                                                  
1965.01.11

AKŞAM DAILY NEWSPAPER                                              
1965.01.24

RADIOCORRIERE.TV                                                  
1965 January 24 - 30

OPERA MAGAZINE                                                  
1965 March

Milan. Calm After the Storm. January 9 saw another return — Bellini's Norma, produced again by Margherita Wallmann with sets by Salvatore Fiume. The conductor this season was Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who showed himself obviously intent on imparting a lesson in true style. The title-role was sung by Leyla Gencer but, to tell the truth, this nobly-endowed and intelligent artist did not seem entirely right for the difficult part which perhaps demands greater versatility than she displayed or the conductor allowed her. Still, a memorable interpretation, even though disappointing occasionally to lovers of Bellini's be! canto. Certainly, at her every appearance, Giulietta Simionato (Adalgisa) dispensed a lesson in singing and style to all, colleagues and audience alike. Bruno Prevedi tried his best to match the achievement of the two ladies but his Pollione is too immature dramatically—and perhaps in vocal technique too — for a theatre like La Scala.

CORREIO VAUGA

1965.04.16

THE PLAIN DEALER                                        
1977.01.11

OPERA COMPOSER'S WORKS                                        
2000
              

COMPLETE RECORDING                  

1965.01.13

Recording Excerpts [1965.01.13]
Sinfonia Act I
Ite sul colle, o Druidi Act I Scene I
Dell'aura tua profetica Act I Scene I
Svanir le voci Act I Scene II
Meco all'altar di Venere Act I Scene II
Odi?... I suoi riti a compiere Act I Scene II
Norma viene: le cinge la chioma Act I Scene III
Sediziose voci Act I Scene IV
Casta Diva Act I Scene IV
Fine al rito Act I Scene IV
Sgombra è la sacra selva Act I Scene V
Eccola. Va, mi lascia Act I Scene VI
Vieni in Roma, ah! vieni, o cara Act I Scene VI
Vanne, e li cela entrambi Act I Scene VII
Adalgisa - Alma, costanza Act I Scene VIII
Oh! rimembranza! io fui così rapita Act I Scene VIII
Ma di'... l'amato giovane Act I Scene IX
Oh! di qual sei tu vittima Act I Scene IX
Perfido! - Or basti Act I Scene IX
Introduzione Act II
Dormono entrambi Act II Scene I
Mi chiami, o Norma? Act II Scene II
Mira, o Norma, a' tuoi ginocchi Act II Scene II
Cedi... deh! cedi! Act II Scene III
Non partì? - Finora è al campo Act II Scene IV
Guerrieri! a voi venirne credea foriero Act II Scene V
Ei tornerà Act II Scene VI
Squilla il bronzo del Dio! Act II Scene VII
In mia man alfin tu sei Act II Scene X
Dammi quel ferro Act II Scene X
Qual cor tradisti Act II Final Scene
Norma!... deh! Norma! Scolpati Act II Final Scene
Deh! non volerli vittime Act II Final Scene
 

The NIGHT of Leyla Gencer’s TRIUMPH | Norma, 1965
(Translation + Score)

Recording Excerpts

Deh! non volerli vittime Norma Act II Scene XI Finale

Norma: Leyla Gencer

Oroveso: Nicola Zaccaria
Pollione: Bruno Prevedi

Live from Teatro alla Scala di Milano, 1965.01.13

Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni

This is the infamous Norma in La Scala which caused a mayhem when it was announced. Both the theatre and Gencer received...not so nice wishes from some Callas fans. From her autobiography, "How dare you take on Norma after Callas!", "Just know that we will ruin you on stage. You will never be able to step on it again!", "People who want to see the end of Leyla Gencer can watch Norma!"...."You sing Norma and you die!" La Scala was also starting to feel unease. Previous year Mirelle Freni was booed off stage because she sang another "Callas role", Violetta. When Gencer arrived at La Scala on the night of the performance, there were reports of people who came with eggs and tomatoes. She smiled when she heard the news but inwardly doubts were starting to creep up. Gencer, who normally attacked the stage like a caged animal was at defence when she appeared as Norma. She was shy and cautious. These feelings escalated when it was time for Casta diva. She feared the worst from the audience but met with applause. She was starting to relax. No one was leaving like she had feared. They seemed genuinely interested in Gencer's Norma. And the final scene. Gencer, was overwhelmed with mix of emotions. Sadness, fear, doubt, surprise, relief, joy...Not only because she was playing Norma but the months leading up to this night. Deh, non volerli vittime is the ultimate peak of these emotions. She was crying. Bruno Prevedi was crying. Nicola Zaccaria was crying. Choir was crying....and La Scala audience was crying. It was a night of triumph.


FROM CD BOOKLET

LEYLA GENCER
 
(Istanbul 10/10/1928) Turkish soprano with a Polish-born mother. She first studied at her birthplace Conservatory, and then at the State Theatre in Ankara with Giannina Arangi Lombardi and Apollo Granforte. She made her debut in Italy in 1954 at the Naples Teatro San Carlo as Madama Butterfly and Tatjana in Eugen Onegin, and thereafter successfully sang in all the major Italian opera houses: Palermo Teatro Massimo, (1955, La Traviata), Trieste (1955, La Traviata, 1957, Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor), Milan La Scala (1957 Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites, 1958 Pizzetti's Assassinio nella Cattedrale, both world first performances. In 1957 she sang at Toscanini's funeral, with De Sabata in the Cathedral in Milan and and La Forza del Destino with the La Scala tour in Cologne), Venice La Fenice (1957 I Due Foscari), Florence (1959 La Battaglia di Legnano), Genoa (1959, Il Trovatore) Bologna (1961, Un Ballo in Maschera), Rome (1954, I Vespri Siciliani), Verona Arena (1964, Aida). Right from the start she also sang in many foreign opera houses, among which Warsaw, Lodz, Poznam (1957, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly), St. Petersburg, Moscow (1960, La Traviata) San Francisco (1956, Francesca da Rimini; 1957, La Traviata; Lucia di Lammermoor; 1958, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Manon); Vienna (1957 La Traviata); Buenos Aires (1961, Rigoletto, I Puritani) Salzburg Festival (1961, Simon Boccanegra), London (1962, Don Carlo, Don Giovanni), Glyndebourne (1962, Le Nozze di Figaro; 1965, Anna Bolena) Oslo (1962, Don Giovanni), Barcelona (1962, Norma) Chicago (1964, Don Carlo), Edinburgh (1972, Elisabetta Reginal d'Inghilterra), Munich, Bilbao, Philadelphia, Ankara, Istanbul... She performed opera until 1983 (Venice La Fenice, F. Gnecco's La Prova di un'Opera Seria), and recitals and concerts until the nineties.
Her repertoire is a very large one: from the "soprano leggero" roles in the early years, to the pathos-ridden and the "drammatico di agilità" ones, from "belcanto" to contemporary opera (Prokofiev's Fiery Angel, Britten, Poulenc, Menotti, Roccal (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 1966) to the neoclassical operas - from Cherubini (Medea, Venice 1968), Spontini (La Vestale, Agnese di Hohenstaufen) Mayr (Medea in Corinto) Pacini (Saffo) to Mozart. A contemporary singer as far as sensitivity and strict respect of the text, she was a protagonist in both the Verdi and Donizetti Renaissance: she had in her repertoire 18 Verdi's operas, among which the "rediscovered" I Due Foscari (Venice, 1957); La Battaglia di Legnano (Firenze, 1959); Jerusalem (Venezia, 1963) as well as titles rarely performed at that time such as Macbeth (from 1960 in Palermo, conductor Vittorio Gui, until 1980) and Attila (Florence 1972, conductor Riccardo Muti). She was a forerunner of the Donizetti Renaissance, with the outstanding rediscovery of Roberto Devereux (Naples 1964), Lucrezia Borgia (Naples 1967), Belisario (Venice 1969), Caterina Cornaro (Naples 1972), Les Martyrs (Bergamo 1975) besides popularizing Anna Bolena (from 1957), completing the tirade of her Donizetti's queens. As for Bellini, she rediscovered Beatrice di Tenda and sang Norma in a number of thrilling performances (from La Scala, 1965, conductor Gavazzeni, to Verona, Barcelona, Lausanne, Buenos Aires...)
Gencer's inquisitiveness led her to rediscover, in her recitals, rare pages of refined authors. Among her favourite’s programs, the 19 Polish songs op. 47 by Chopin, in the original language, with pianist Nikita Magaloff.
In the Eighties she started teaching, as the artistic director of Milan As.Li.Co. (from 1983) and at present as artistic consultant and teacher of musical interpretation at the Singing Academy of the Teatro alla Scala (from 1997).
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