Bellini - Norma / Patane, Caballe, Vickers, Veasey, Theatre Antique d'Orange

The negative first... Josephine Veasey's voice, about 80% of the time, has difficulty in singing dead centre in the pitch. She seems to attempt an atomic model of singing in which the pitch, like a pair of electrons, is a cloud of probability rather than certainty. Sometimes the sound she produces is pleasant - and sometimes it's not. She sounds good in the duets with Caballe, though, and there are certainly moments when she does some nice things vocally. Not so with her acting, though... It is, I'm afraid, pure ham. The times she FLINGS herself down onto the ground is too much, both in quality and quantity.Second negative - Jon Vickers. His is a magnificent voice, of course, but it's not really a bel canto voice, and he fails to portray the beauty of the role of Pollione. He's also not an able actor, and does not manage to convey manly beauty in his portrayal (as Pollione surely must - he has two druidic priestesses in love with him).I don't count the quality of the DVD as a negative - for me, primarily, the performance is the thing. (The technical quality is perfectly adequate in conveying the performance, and as such, I've no complaints.)What makes this performance a 5-star performance...? Montserrat Caballe. I'd never have believed Caballe could give such a supremely beautiful performance of this extremely difficult role. Never. The enthusiastic reviews here encouraged me to purchase the DVD, but I was still worried... Would she sound like the hooting and large-sized woman I was accustomed to seeing? I'd never really understood what the fuss was about, concerning Caballe, until I chanced upon a recording of I Stranieri by Bellini, with Caballe singing so exquisitely that it was like a silken ladder to God.But almost everything else of her performances has failed to impress me. I've heard the camel-sneering arthritic vocal attack problem. I've heard the painful and squally timbre. I've seen the apparently self-satisfied persona standing on stage... I was afraid of all of that happening in this performance...... and it was not so.Instead, the watchers were divinely blessed by a performance so sublime that one is stricken with agreement when Adalgisa sings "sublimi'accenti", and when Norma sings of herself as "sublime woman". Sublime, indeed... Vocally, exquisitely beautiful and full of the unconscious grandeur Norma MUST have. Caballe WAS Norma. I can well understand why Callas (another great Norma - perhaps the greatest of them all) signified her approval of this performance. The acting! It was unexpectedly perfect! Caballe was convincing and ravishing, overcoming without any effort at all the fact that she was less than sylph-like and not in the first flush of youth. That simply melted away, and we were left with the essence of Norma, the woman who struggles with love, guilt, political worries, fear of infidelity, jealousy, and finally a nobility of self-sacrifice that will leave no tear unwept.The performance is outdoors - there is a wind that stirs and sometimes grabs the costumes of the performers. This does not detract an iota from the performance - rather, it gives it an uncanny sense of realism.The Oroveso was fine - his voice had real depth and passion, and he looked the part beautifully.The high-points - the incredibly beautiful aria Casta Diva, the duets between Adalgisa and Norma, the trio between Norma, Adalgis and the faithless Pollione - are truly high points. If they don't make you get up and shout "Brave! Brave!", nothing will! The crowd in this outdoor theatre can be heard and seen going berserk with applause, and one appreciates why - they were seeing a historic Norma that the whole world should regard as irreplaceable and precious.This is Norma as it should be. One might wish for a more ideal Pollione, and a better Adalgisa, but let's face it - the opera stands or falls with its Norma. Here... the performance does more than stand. It... soars.

I purchased this DVD after reading an unqualified review of it in Opera News, and I wasn't disappointed. Caballe's perfect use of gentle rubato and elegant phrasing were a revelation and must surely must be how the composer intended the work to be sung, always sounding so natural and movingly effective. One should remember that Chopin in trying to instruct his pupils on phrasing suggested they go to the opera and listen to Bellini! (Chopin admired Bellini to the extent that he also requested he be buried next to Bellini!) And to me, this performance is a lesson in interpretation that harkens back to that romantic age. Comparisons with Callas are unnecessary and irrelevant. Callas herself saw the first commerical release of this performance as a film in Paris, commented on how beautiful Caballe looked in the film, then called Caballe and commented on the performance and "the greatness of your service both to the music and the character." Callas later sent Caballe the earings Visconti had given her on the occassion of her own 1955 performances of Norma at La Scala. Even Callas knew that no one "owns" a role exclusively as has been suggested in some of the other comments. Norma is a noble but dramatically reserved work. But within that style, Caballe shows true passion and fury in her interactions with her Pollione and is so very moving near the end as she pleads with her father - unequalled really, in that scene. The other cast members are not the revelation that Caballe is in the role, but they are good. Vickers is interesting though somewhat unusual in the role of Pollione. The outdoor theater is a magnificant setting and the costumes stunningly beautiful and effective. It was a cold and windy evening, but hey, its a live outdoor performance, and the added virtues of a live performance often outweigh the disadvantages unless one is just seriously limited to accepting only perfectly commercially recorded Cd's. It is not a studio recording, nor represented as such, but the sound is fine enough to never seriously distract from the performance. My God! we are lucky to have this preserved and available!

I never fully appreciated Norma till I saw this perfomance. Of course, I've heard Callas, Sutherland etc sing the roles but the opera always seemed to slack in parts. The music is beautiful however and it is filled with memorable arias and duets.That all changed with this DVD. Every note, every gesture was filled with so much drama and emotion. So much immediacy. It was as close to perfect a video recording of Opera as I have seen. Caballe was simply magnificent as Norma. Her singing was beautiful and while she does not have the dramatic intensity of Callas, she was utterly rivetting. Her gestures, movement and expressions were just right, especially in the duets with Vickers and Veasey. All three of them made this opera come alive but Norma is an opera that lives or dies by the perfomance of the title role and Caballe commanded. This is opera as one wants it...great drama and acting with sublime music and singing at the same time.I understand now that Norma is truly a great opera and it needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Sowohl das Bild als auch der Klang ist unter jeder Kritik - ich behalte die DVD nur wegen ihres historischen Wertes. Wie diese DVD zu einer 4-Sterne-Kitik kommt, ist mir schleierhafthen

Es una mala version no tiene calidad hay que mirar a ver si la tiene Hardy por favor pidanla porque esta es muy mala y carisima he pagado casi 60 euros contestenme por facor

Parfait.

Como parte esencial del repertorio, Norma cuenta con incontable número de interpretaciones en todos los formatos. Algunas de ellas geniales, otras no tanto, pero sin lugar a dudas esta grabación es única entre todas ellas. Son muchos los factores que convergieron para crear esta maravilla, por un lado la genialidad de los intérpretes (tanto cantantes como músicos) y por otro, la magia del momento. La función fue al aire libre y de noche, en el antiguo anfiteatro romano de Orange. Por si fuera poco, aquella velada un portentoso viento del norte amenazó con cancelar, pero con suma valentía y profesionalismo los artistas salieron a encarar al inclemente tiempo. No cabe duda, que su esfuerzo sobrehumano resultó en uno del los momentos más entrañables en la historia del género y del arte en general.Caballé personifica Norma y vaya interpretación que nos entrega. Generalmente el papel se considera propiedad de Callas, pero después de escuchar Casta Diva cantado con tal ingravidez y finura creo que me lo cuestionaría seriamente. Trascendiendo la famosa aria, Caballé nos da una Norma dinámica, con ella amamos a la madre, tememos a la guerrera y veneramos a la sacerdotisa. Nada que ver con sus estáticas actuaciones que podemos ver en otros videos, aquí ella se entrega hasta las últimas consecuencias, dándonos así, un pathos completo y multifacético. Compartiendo el escenario con esta diva de primera, encontramos al imponente Jon Vickers en el papel de Pollione. Una elección poco ortodoxa, tomando en cuenta que sus papeles más famosos pertenecen al mundo wagneriano. Sin embargo, logra darnos una actuación dignificada y convincente, sin mencionar que nos deja estupefactos ante el mero tamaño de su voz. Personalmente, aún prefiero el timbre más mediterráneo de Gili y Corelli , pero el gusto se rompe en géneros. Josephine Veasey nos da una Aldalgisa muy buena, aunque no genial. El resto del elenco hace un trabajo sobresaliente y nos da un ejemplo de energía y profesionalismo sin precendentes.En mi opinión, cualquier amante de la ópera debe tener esta producción en su acervo. La única desventaja que tiene, es que después de escucharla, nunca otra Norma les parecerá suficiente.

This is an opera that I have never had the opportunity to see in a live performnce. Thus, this D.V.D. was the next best thing.