The story unfolds very slowly with Norma feeling guilty about having broken her vow of chastity and producing two children with the Roman Pollione, his dumping her for her assistant Priestess Adalgisa, and her threatening to kill first her two children, then herself, then Adalgisa and Pollione.
It just takes a long time to get there.
All the while there is this gorgeous music happening.
I have apparently spent too many years listening to Montserrat Caballe singing this role. Any other soprano just doesn't do it for me. Her amazing musical line, endless breath, clear sound, and faultless vocal ability is unique.
Sondra Radvanovsky has a very large, somewhat covered voice, with the range needed for the role. Her production produces a pushed, unstable sound much of the time with occasional gorgeous soft high notes, messy runs, and some sensational climactic high C's. I have heard her previously and found that sometimes she sings just a little below the pitch. The covering of her voice makes it sound tremulous, especially at the beginning of the opera. Her inability to sing the chromatic downhill runs accurately is unfortunate. Caballe produced these flawlessly. The role is a killer vocally and I must say, she made it to the end in one piece.
I preferred the singing of Elizabeth DeShong as Adalgisa. Her bright, clear voice was also sizeable, her runs accurate, and her sound very appealing. For me she stole the show.
Russell Thomas as Pollione has a very good tenor voice which he used well though he sang at full voice most of the time.
Jesse Donner, a third year member of the Ryan Opera Center sang his brief part with a beautiful, lighter tenor sound.
The set by David Korins was gloomy for the most part with a sort of Barn Door opening at the back that revealed silvery trunks of trees plus one (supposedly an oak) floating side wise in mid air for some reason. A large platform was wheeled on stage from time to time from which Oroveso, Norma's father, and Norma occasionally sang.
Oroveso was sung by Andrea Silvestrelli in a lugubrious basso that was not very attractive.
At the end an enormous bull effigy was wheeled on stage. It was here that Norma was handed a small lighted torch to light the fire in which she and Pollione were to go to their deaths.
Some very good singing but I think cuts could be made in the opera allowing the actionless tale to flow more quickly.
