NORMA
Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835)
Opera in two acts in Italian
Libretto: Felice RomaniPremièr 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
GENCER ALLA SCALA
NORMA
STAGIONE
1964 – 1965
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]
Sediziose voci... Casta
diva che inargenti Act I Scena IV
Fine
al rito... Ah’ bello Act I Scena IV
Ma
di’ ... l’amato giovane quale Act I Scena VIII
Oh!
Non tremare, o perfido Act I Scena IX
Ei
tornera. Si, mia fidanza e posta in Adalgisa Act
II Scena VI
Guerra,
guerra! Le galliche selve Act II Scena VII
Qual
cor tradisti Act II Scena XI
Deh!
Non volerli vittime Act II Scena XI
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).
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).
