Bellini Norma
A superb covent garden performance new to the catalogue with callas at her greatest
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Vincenzo Bellini
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Great Recordings of the Century
Magazine Review Date: 12/2003
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 160
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 562638-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Norma |
Vincenzo Bellini, Composer
Ebe Stignani, Adalgisa, Soprano Maria Callas, Norma, Soprano Mario Filippeschi, Pollione, Tenor Milan La Scala Chorus Milan La Scala Orchestra Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Oroveso, Bass Paolo Caroli, Flavio, Tenor Rina Cavallari, Clotilde, Mezzo soprano Tullio Serafin, Conductor Vincenzo Bellini, Composer |
Composer or Director: Vincenzo Bellini
Genre:
Opera
Label: Callas Edition
Magazine Review Date: 12/2003
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 151
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 562668-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Norma |
Vincenzo Bellini, Composer
Ebe Stignani, Adalgisa, Soprano Giacomo Vaghi, Oroveso, Bass Joan Sutherland, Clotilde, Mezzo soprano Maria Callas, Norma, Soprano Mirto Picchi, Pollione, Tenor Paul Asciak, Flavio, Tenor Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden Vincenzo Bellini, Composer Vittorio Gui, Conductor |
Author: Alan Blyth
Callas, in her vocal prime, is not only more secure than in her studio recordings, of which more anon, but also, in the theatre, she electrifies the senses through her total identification with Norma’s plight. As ever, her accomplishment of the recitative, whether tender or commanding, forms the framework for a wholly absorbing and commanding interpretation and for her marvellous delineation of Bellini’s cantilena in aria and ensemble. Together they add up to a unique and profoundly satisfying experience, fully worthy of her reputation.
‘Casta diva’ is sung with rapt, warm tone, the words quietly inflected. The scene, ‘Dormono entrambi!’, where Norma contemplates murdering her children is quite searing, the inner compulsion of ‘Teneri figli’, quite heart-rending. At the other end of the vocal spectrum she can utter the single word ‘Giura!’ with such conviction as to cow anyone in sight. Then in the final scene her performance takes on a sense of transfiguration, her voice gaining a visionary quality as Norma prepares for death to atone for her sin. Try the start of ‘Qual cor tradisti’, opening the final-scene trio, to hear what I mean.
The support, compared to what we often hear today in this sort of piece, is of the highest calibre. Ebe Stignani, sounding younger than in the 1954 studio set, is inspired in both voice and accentuation. In the theatre as JBS and I recall, at her first entrance, ‘Sgombre è sacra selva’, she flooded the house with glorious sound. Later she duets with Callas as to the manner born. As the callous Pollione, the much underrated Mirto Picchi sings almost too well: a tenor of the old Italian school, with the concomitant virtues of pleasing timbre and faultless legato. In Pollione’s appeal to Adalgisa to come back to him, in Act 1, ‘Vieni in Roma’, Picchi produces such a seductive mezza-voce line as to melt the heart of any woman.
Giacomo Vaghi, who left all-too-few examples of his imposing art, was a reigning bass in Rome, in the 1930s and ’40s; here he proves just why – with his authoritative utterance in a secure, imposing bass – he was so admired. A bonus is the youthful Joan Sutherland (then in her first season as a contracted artist in the house), as Clothilde, in what must be her first recording.
It is odd that EMI should issue this version at the same time as the 1954 studio effort as a Great Recording of the Century. I would place the Royal Opera House set rather than this one in that category, or even the 1960 remake (listed above), in better sound and with preferable secondary singers – Mario Filippeschi is a particular trial as Pollione in 1954.
By the side of the live performance it sounds boxy and studio-bound. Above all, Gui at Covent Garden instils far more life in the score than does the slightly routine Serafin, and the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus are superior to their counterparts at La Scala. As for Callas, excellent as she is in 1954, it is the 1952 performance that carries greater force and conviction. Her voice sounds truer in the theatre acoustic than up against the microphone in 1954. The live performance has some distortion at vocal and orchestral climaxes but that worried me hardly at all given the riveting performance.
I urge anyone new to Callas to try to hear this wholly compelling experience, now my preferred choice for this work, to the paler studio version. If you want a better-recorded, stereo version, go for the 1960 set, with Christa Ludwig and Franco Corelli as excellent support. Callas herself, though in frailer voice, has by then added further refinements to her reading, but the spontaneity of 1952 is not quite there.
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