Bellini's Norma: A New Production at Teatro di San Carlo

A new production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma is scheduled at the Teatro di San Carlo from March 12 to March 20, 2024. This production, coming from the Teatro Real in Madrid, makes its debut in Naples under the direction of Justin Way and conductor Lorenzo Passerini, who once again leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro di San Carlo following La sonnambula and Rigoletto. The set design is by Charles Edwards, with costumes by Sue Willmington, lighting by Nicolás Fischtel, and stage movements by Jo Meredith. The cast includes Anna Pirozzi in the title role and Freddie De Tommaso as Pollione, with Ekaterina Gubanova as Adalgisa and Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Oroveso. Completing the cast are Veronica Marini (Clotilde) and Giorgi Guliashvili (Flavio). The Choir Master is Fabrizio Cassi. The production is set in the period when the opera was first performed (1831), blending stage costumes with 19th-century attire and drawing parallels between the oppression of the Gauls and the oppression of the Italians. Director Justin Way explains that the staging is the same as that presented in Madrid in March 2021. Working with the set designer during the pandemic, they focused the original drama on Norma, but also on an actress/entrepreneur of the time, a special woman, akin to Sarah Bernhardt. The story of the priestess torn between being a leader to her people and a woman in love, then jealous and vengeful, and finally just, thus becomes also the story of a production where the prima donna plays the role of Norma, experiencing as a woman her own experiences. A protagonist who struggles to separate her role from her life. The lyric tragedy in two acts composed in 1831 with a libretto by Felice Romani, Norma is based on Norma ou L'Infanticide by Louis-Alexandre Soumet. First performed at the Teatro alla Scala on December 26, 1831, it is considered a milestone of the Italian bel canto school and an undisputed masterpiece of the purest Romanticism. Norma made its debut at the Teatro San Carlo in 1833 with Maria Malibran in the title role. Later, the role of the Druid priestess on the stage of the Lirico di Napoli was played by artists such as Leyla Gencer in 1965, Elena Suliotis in 1970, Montserrat Caballé in 1973, and in more recent years Mariella Devia (2016) and Angela Meade (2020).