In her autobiography (APrima Donna’s Progress‚ Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 1997) Sutherland recalls this production as ‘very beautiful with a silvery blue moonlit glow in the big “Casta diva” scene and interesting costumes and sets’. Norma Major (Joan Sutherland: the Authorised Biography‚ Little‚ Brown & Co: 1987)‚ noting the ‘odd mix of pre­Raphaelite women and warriors in horned helmets’‚ quotes a review which found the set ‘simply awful‚ and what the producer does with it hardly better’. One thing is for sure: it does not take kindly to being filmed. Nor‚ sad to say‚ does its heroine. In the theatre‚ her height and strong features‚ together with that mysterious quality‚ stage­presence (which does not necessarily go with either)‚ made her more than watchable. Here there are moments: Norma with folded arms sending the troops off to battle‚ or with rapt expression listening to Adalgisa’s first confession of love. Always in character‚ she is at times memorably intense. But her bone structure is too extreme for the camera‚ and we are more aware than with many singers of the physical process of singing. Presumably (and as far as I can gauge from memories of her Norma at Covent Garden) she acted the part here much as in other productions‚ and clearly hers is a well­worked­out performance; but the other principals look as though they could have done with an idea or two. Margreta Elkins brings warmth to her part‚ and Ronald Stevens and Clifford Grant impart (respectively) virility and dignity to theirs; unfortunately‚ film needs more. As to whether the singing makes all well‚ as it probably did in the opera house‚ I found myself no more than partially reconciled. One real pleasure was to encounter Clifford Grant’s solid‚ evenly produced bass again. In some strange way Sutherland seems rarely to be caught in full glory; she is better remembered in the earlier sound recording of 1965 (Decca‚ 5/65R). There‚ as in this‚ Bonynge conducts‚ alert in rhythm‚ careful in phrasing‚ wanting just some additional feeling or insight to achieve the full tragic stature.