Lovesick women chasing after men who have more on their minds than romance. Fiercely independent women who use their beauty and powers of seduction to find fame and fortune. There are many exceptional roles for sopranos in the operatic repertoire; however many of the most well-known and treasured heroines might also be regarded as stereotypical. Think Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Violetta in La Traviata, and the title characters in Aïda and Turandot.
Although opera storylines tend to share certain elements, that doesn’t make the characters any less loveable or less worthy of our empathy. Nor is the music any less difficult to sing. But it’s rare to find a role that is so challenging for a singer technically and also requires them to play such an immense range of emotion. Norma requires both. The score demands vocalism of titanic proportions and Oscar-worthy acting chops. It’s rare to find a soprano who can really handle it.
Perhaps it is for this reason that in its 63-year history, Tulsa Opera has never staged the opera. This spring, Norma receives her long-overdue premiere with a production created expressly for the Tulsa Opera stage by Stanley M. Garner, a popular American stage director and an Oklahoma native. The production stars distinguished American soprano Brenda Harris in the title role and commanding tenor Frank Porretta as her lover, Pollione.
With Norma, Vincenzo Bellini gave the bel canto tradition its crown jewel. It is the heartbreakingly beautiful and affecting story of an ancient Druid priestess contemplating her fate and that of her children, as she faces abandonment by the Roman soldier who is her lover.
Bellini, together with Gioacchino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti, forms the “holy trinity” of Italian bel canto opera composers. His relatively small body of work – only 10 operas – had astonishingly far-reaching influence on Italian opera. His operas are distinguished from those of his two colleagues by the unique sense of musical mysticism arising from his finely-spun, hypnotic melodies and highly emotional dramatic style. Norma includes such unforgettable passages as Norma’s transforming “Casta Diva”, and the duet for Norma and Adalgisa, “Mira o Norma”.
Stage Director Stanley M. Garner is returning to Tulsa Opera to create this new and imaginative production. Garner’s work was most recently seen in Tulsa in 2009 with the production of Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition to conceiving and directing the production, he also designed the set and the costumes.
This isn’t Garner’s first experience with Norma. He has directed the show twice in his career, the first time at the Connecticut Opera in Hartford, and then a decade later at the Seattle Opera.
“Those previous productions have influenced my approach to the opera this time around in a major way,” Garner said. “Both of those earlier incarnations were very traditional, or I should say, they were as traditional as an opera written in 1831 would have been presented in the 20th century. One thing bothered me however; the depiction of Rome’s occupation of ancient Gaul never really rang true. Displaying an invented, fictional Druid culture alongside a factual Roman society seemed a constant distraction.”
“The juxtaposition of seeing a Roman centurion on the same stage as a lady wearing what seemed like a shimmering evening gown topped off with a little rhinestone tiara was incongruous at the least.”
By setting Norma in an unspecific time and place, the characters, their drama and music resonate without that distracting conflict of fact versus fiction; history versus invention.
There are only two different scenes in the opera: the site where they perform religious rites – “the altar of Irminsul” – and Norma’s dwelling. Garner based the design for the altar on a photograph of a modern recreation of Stonehenge in New Zealand. For Norma’s dwelling, a large wall built out of recycled? shipping pallets is used with several platforms.
The pallet wall allows the audience to still see the altar in the background, maintaining the religious overtones as a constant influence on Norma.
The costume design is based on the clothing globally worn by men in countries near the equator and composed of three garments, pants, tunic, and either a vest or coat as a unisex fashion for the Druid society. To represent the agrarian aspect of the society the color palette is brown and green.
Soprano Brenda Harris returns to Tulsa Opera in the iconic role of Norma, one of her signature roles. “Brenda is one of the foremost interpreters of Norma,” Kostis Protopapas, artistic director of Tulsa Opera, said. “Her voice, with its amazing combination of beauty, power and agility and her authoritative stage personality make her an ideal interpreter of Bellini’s mythical druid priestess.”
When asked what the most challenging part of the role is for her, Harris quickly responds, “the opening.” There is definitely a lot of build-up to Norma’s arrival at the religious ceremony. “Everyone talks about Norma for twenty minutes before she hits the stage and then she’s charged with the challenge of one of the most difficult and most famous arias in the operatic repertoire.”
Harris continues, “This woman is such a wonderfully perfect and flawed character all at once! Her struggle is human and archetypal and everyone can relate to some part of Norma. And the music . . . don’t get me started. It just doesn’t get any better!”
Garner began work on the production almost a year and a half ago. “Although I’ve always been a traditionalist in my approach to opera, at my initial meeting with Kostis Protopapas I immediately became excited about his proposal to give the Tulsa Opera audience a new view of Norma as she finally makes her Oklahoma debut.”
Harris, too, is looking forward to a new interpretation of this classic work. “Norma is a work of such timeless distinction that a variety of periods, styles and interpretations can work! If the concept is well prepared and consistent, it can be wonderful!”
Performances of Norma will be held in the Chapman Music Hall of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 30, and Friday May 6, at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee performance on Sunday, May 8 at 2:30 p.m. The opera will be performed in the original Italian with English supertitles projected above the stage.
Norma
Presented by Tulsa Opera
April 30 and May 6 at 7:30 p.m.
May 8 at 2:30 p.m.
Chapman Music Hall
Tickets are $10 – $98
MyTicketOffice.com and 596-7111