CONDUCTOR

Riccardo Frizza

PRODUCTION

John Copley

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER John Conklin

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Duane Schuler

STAGE DIRECTOR

Stephen Pickover

Vincenzo Bellini

Norma

GENERAL MANAGER

Peter Gelb

MUSIC DIRECTOR

James Levine

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

Fabio Luisi

Opera in two actsLibretto by Felice Romani based on the play by Alexandre Soumet

Thursday, October 10, 2013, 8:00–11:05 pm

This production of Norma is made possible by a generous gift from a Managing Director and his wife.

The 151st Metropolitan Opera performance of

Thursday, October 10, 2013, 8:00–11:05 pm

Vincenzo Bellini’s

Norma

2013–14 Season

in order of vocal appearance

ConductorRiccardo Frizza

Oroveso, head of the druids and father of Norma James Morris

Pollione, Roman proconsul in Gaul Aleksandrs Antonenko

Flavio, his friend Eduardo Valdes

Norma, high priestess of the druidical temple Sondra Radvanovsky*

Adalgisa, a young novice priestess Kate Aldrich

Clotilde, Norma’s confidante Siân Davies

This performance is dedicated to Glen Bowersock in grateful recognition of his generosity to the Metropolitan Opera

as a member of the Council for Artistic Excellence.

* Graduate of the

Lindemann Young Artist

Development Program

Yamaha. Celebrating 25 Years

as the Official Piano

of the Metropolitan Opera.

Latecomers will not be

admitted during the

performance.

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Met TitlesTo activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of your seat and follow the instructions provided. To turn off the display, press the red button once again. If you have questions please ask an usher at intermission.

Chorus Master Donald PalumboMusical Preparation Joan Dornemann, Dennis Giauque,

Donna Racik, John Keenan, and Steven EldredgeAssistant Stage Director Gina LapinskiStage Band Conductor Gregory BuchalterItalian Coach Loretta Di FrancoPrompter Donna RacikMet Titles John ConklinScenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and

painted by Metropolitan Opera ShopsCostumes executed by Metropolitan Opera Costume

DepartmentWigs and Makeup executed by Metropolitan Opera

Wig and Makeup Department

This performance is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Before the performance begins, please switch off cell phones and other electronic devices.

Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role of Bellini’s Norma

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Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko in Eugene Onegin 2013–14 season

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A�e Metropolitan Opera is pleased to salute Rolex in recognition of its generous support during the 2013–14 season.

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Act IIn a forest at night, the priest Oroveso leads the druids in a prayer for revenge against the conquering Romans. After they have left, the Roman proconsul Pollione admits to his friend Flavio that he no longer loves the high priestess Norma, Oroveso’s daughter, with whom he has two children. He has fallen in love with a young novice priestess, Adalgisa, who returns his love. Flavio warns him against Norma’s anger. The druids assemble and Norma prays to the moon goddess for peace. She tells her people that as soon as the moment for their uprising against the conquerors arrives, she herself will lead the revolt. At the same time, she realizes that she could never harm Pollione. When the grove is deserted, Adalgisa appears and asks for strength to resist Pollione. He finds her crying and urges her to flee with him to Rome. She agrees to renounce her vows.

Norma tells her confidante Clotilde that Pollione has been called back to Rome. She is afraid that he will desert her and their children. Adalgisa confesses to Norma that she has a lover. Recalling the beginning of her own love affair, Norma is about to release Adalgisa from her vows and asks for the name of her lover. As Pollione appears, Adalgisa answers truthfully. Norma’s kindness turns to fury. She tells Adalgisa about her own betrayal by the Roman soldier. Pollione confesses his love for Adalgisa and asks her again to come away with him, but she refuses and declares she would rather die than steal him from Norma.

Act IINorma, dagger in hand, tries to bring herself to murder her children in their sleep to protect them from living disgracefully without a father. But she changes her mind and summons Adalgisa, advising her to marry Pollione and take the children to Rome. Adalgisa refuses: she will go to Pollione, but only to persuade him to return to Norma. Overcome by emotion, Norma embraces her, and the women reaffirm their friendship.

Gaul, 50 B.C.E.

Act Iscene 1 The sacred forest of the druidsscene 2 Norma’s dwelling

Intermission (aT APPROXIMATELY 9:30 PM)

Act IIscene 1 Inside Norma’s dwellingscene 2 A lonely place near the druids’ woodscene 3 The Temple of Irminsul

Synopsis

BRITTEN

A Midsummer Night’s DreamOCT 11, 15, 19 mat, 23, 26, 31

Britten’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s magical romance returns to the Met for the first time in ten years, in celebration of the composer’s centennial.

TCHAIKOVSKY

Eugene OneginOCT 9, 12, 16, 19

�e Met’s 2013–14 season opens with the premiere of Deborah Warner’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s fateful romance, starring Anna Netrebko, Mariusz Kwiecien, and Piotr Beczala. Valery Gergiev conducts.

SHOSTAKOVICH

The NoseOCT 8, 12 mat, 17, 22, 26 mat

William Kentridge’s inventive production of Shostakovich’s satirical opera, which stormed the Met in 2010, returns to the stage starring Paulo Szot, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

BELLINI

NormaOCT 7, 10, 14, 18, 24, 28 NOV 1

Sondra Radvanovsky and Angela Meade take on the title role in Bellini’s crowd-pleaser of bel canto fireworks, opposite Aleksandrs Antonenko and Kate Aldrich.

ON STAGE NOWA new production and three returning favorites!

ONStage.Oct.indd 1 10/1/13 10:42 AM

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Synopsis CONTINUED

The druids assemble at their altar to hear Oroveso’s announcement that a new commander will replace Pollione. Oroveso rages against the Roman oppression, but tells the druids that they must be patient to ensure the success of the eventual revolt.

Norma is stunned to hear from Clotilde that Adalgisa’s pleas have not persuaded Pollione to return to her, and in a rage she urges her people to attack the conquerors. Oroveso demands a sacrificial victim, and just then Pollione is brought in, having profaned the sanctuary. Alone with him, Norma promises him his freedom if he will give up Adalgisa for her. When he refuses, Norma threatens to kill him and their children, and to punish Adalgisa. She calls in the druids and tells them that a guilty priestess must die, then confesses that she is referring to herself. Moved by her nobility, Pollione asks to share her fate. Norma begs Oroveso to watch over her children, then leads her lover to the pyre.

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Vincenzo Bellini

Norma

In Focus

Premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1831This opera is an extraordinary fusion of sublime melody, vocal challenge, and dramatic power. It examines an ageless and archetypal situation: a powerful woman compromises her ideals for love, only to find herself betrayed by her lover. But this is only one aspect of her dilemma. Equally gripping is her relationship with the younger woman who is the new object of her former lover’s attention and in whom Norma sees both a rival and a second self. The title role demands dramatic vocal power combined with the agility and technique of a coloratura singer. It is a daunting challenge that few can rise to: those who have are part of operatic lore.

The CreatorsVincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) was a Sicilian composer whose greatest gift was his extraordinary understanding of the human voice. His meteoric career was cut short by his death at the age of 33, shortly after his opera I Puritani triumphed in its Parisian premiere. Felice Romani (1788–1865) was the official librettist of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. A frequent collaborator of Bellini, he worked with the composer on six operas, and also wrote the libretti for Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore and Anna Bolena, among many other works. The tragedy Norma by the French poet and dramatist Alexandre Soumet (1788–1845) was performed at the Theâtre de l’Odéon in Paris in April of 1831, and suggested to Bellini by Romani as potential source material for an opera.

The SettingThe opera is set in Gaul (France) at the beginning of its occupation by the Roman Empire. Almost all of the characters are druids, members of the Gallic priesthood, the only exceptions being the tenors, both of whom are Romans. It is interesting that the Roman Empire, long depicted in European culture as a civilizing force, is here seen as corrupt and exploitative.

The MusicNorma is perhaps the archetypal bel canto opera, a style of singing that flourished in Italy in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Its principal features are beauty of tone, legato phrasing, and the delivery of florid ornamentation. The score of Norma is characterized by extraordinary melody punctuated by sharp

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moments of raw drama. The primary functions of the clear orchestral writing are to move the drama along with vigorous rhythm and to inform certain moments with feeling and emotion, such as the superb flute accompaniment to the soprano’s Act I aria “Casta diva.” The drama of Norma, however, is embedded in the nuances of the vocal parts as in few other operas. A note held in one phrase or swelled in another, a snippet flung out with extra edge—these are the sorts of details that create legendary performances of Norma. While such fine points are important in the solos, such as the tenor’s Act I “Meco all’altar di Venere” and especially in the soprano’s “Casta diva,” the details of vocalism become even more crucial in the several ensembles. These include the stirring trio in the finale to Act I and the soprano/mezzo Act II duet “Mira, o Norma.” The blending—and contrast—of the voices, as the two women begin in confrontation and end in unity and friendship, is an astounding example of how much drama can be communicated through singing.

Norma at the MetNorma entered the Met repertory (in German) in 1890, the title role sung by Wagner specialist Lilli Lehmann. The opera then fell out of the repertory after 1892 until Tullio Serafin conducted a new production, designed by Joseph Urban, in 1927. American soprano Rosa Ponselle sang the title role (which she repeated 28 times throughout the following four seasons) opposite tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and bass Ezio Pinza. Zinka Milanov performed the role 16 times between 1943 and 1954. Maria Callas sang five performances of Norma in 1956, including her Met debut, which also featured Fedora Barbieri, Mario Del Monaco, Cesare Siepi, and Fausto Cleva conducting. A young James McCracken sang the second tenor role of Flavio in these performances. In 1970 a new production premiered with Richard Bonynge conducting Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne making her Met debut, and Carlo Bergonzi. (Sutherland and Horne sang in this opera 27 and 25 times respectively, all in the year 1970.) Later interpreters of the immortal priestess include Montserrat Caballé (11 performances between 1973 and 1976) and Renata Scotto (14 performances in 1981 and 1982). The current production by John Copley, designed by John Conklin, premiered in 2001 with Carlo Rizzi conducting Jane Eaglen, Dolora Zajick, and Richard Margison.

In Focus CONTINUED

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201 3–14 Season

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BY NICO MUHLYLIBRETTO BY CRAIG LUCAS

In the shadowy world of Internet chat rooms, two boys engage in a dangerous masquerade with devastating results.

Don’t miss the Metropolitan Opera premiere of this haunting new opera.

OCT 21, 25, 30 NOV 2 mat, 6, 9, 14

M E T O P E R A P R E M I E R E

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W hy Norma? What is it about this opera that has given rise to such an extraordinary myth? Could the task of portraying the druid priestess really be so much more difficult than bringing the mad Lucia or the

Puritan Elvira to the stage, or the host of other characters—Giulietta, Imogene, Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia—that poured forth from the bel canto imaginations of Bellini and Donizetti? Did Bellini somehow reach the pinnacle of his art with this opera, which had its premiere at Milan’s La Scala on December 26, 1831? Was the composer himself convinced that he had written his masterpiece?

In March of 1835, Bellini was considering a revision of the work as it was to be performed at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. He wrote to his friend Francesco Florimo in Naples that the theater had asked him to consider making a number of changes to the score:

“For my revision, I would plan to write a new cavatina and aria for Valini [Pollione]; to prepare a duet between him and Adalgisa in the first act, replacing the original one, which is cold; to write a piece for Lablache [Oroveso] in the second act, either a solo scene or a duet; and finally a new overture, as well as retouching the instrumentation here and there.”

One might ask if Bellini realized that this list of pieces to revise included every single number of the opera (with the exception of the brief introduction to the first act) in which Norma does not appear.

Bellini composed the role for perhaps the greatest singer of the age, Giuditta Pasta. She was one of the few artists who successfully made the transition from the highly florid but more classical style of Rossini to the declamatory and passionate singing demanded by his successors in the 1830s. Whatever these composers might ask of her, she could do it, and Bellini tailored to her multiple skills the role of the druid priestess, in love with the Roman proconsul and the mother of his two children. Early in September of 1831 he wrote to Pasta, assuring her that the librettist, Felice Romani, “thinks that the opera will be very effective, especially thanks to your role, which is encyclopedic: that’s what characterizes Norma.” And later that same month Bellini visited Pasta’s villa on Lake Como, at which time he presumably worked directly with her in planning details of the part.

Whenever Norma sings, Bellini’s muse is on fire. Not that his melodies for other characters are poor, but there is something slightly more mechanical about them. Pollione’s melody, for example, when he tries to convince Adalgisa to escape with him to Rome in their first-act duet (“Vieni in Roma, ah! vieni, o cara”) is a pretty tune, to be sure, but the emotional payoff is limited.

The final section of Norma’s entrance aria in the first act (“Ah! bello a me ritorna”), in which she longs for Pollione to return to her, has essentially the same structure, but here Bellini’s art comes alive. The melody starts simply and then begins to grow. From phrase to phrase it moves higher and higher, until near the very end it is crowned by a syncopated and emphasized high C. The rhythm gets more intense with every phrase, pushing the melody along toward a real climax and closure. It has direction, it has passion.

Program Note

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Program Note CONTINUED

Bellini’s ability to create a melody with a sense of scope and purpose may be unmatched in Italian opera. On one level Norma’s most famous solo, her hymn to the chaste goddess of the moon, “Casta Diva,” is little more than a scale up and scale down. The first elements of that upward motion are made up of ornamented versions of a simple three-note motive, A–G–F. Bellini transforms that skeleton, makes his particular brand of music by lingering over, prolonging, playing with every single sound.

When you think of the entire melody of “Casta Diva” in these terms you begin to understand why this masterpiece of bel canto style seems both inevitable in its sense of direction and purpose and at the same time luxuriant. It rises up and up, peaks, and then falls back to where it began, but Bellini keeps us waiting for that descent at the end of the melody. He doubles back again and again, and even when the melody seems almost ready to conclude, the composer postpones its fall once more, as one arch forms within another, before he finally allows it to come to rest.

Although this kind of elegiac melody is what may first come to mind when we think of Bellini’s Norma, it is the “encyclopedic” nature of the part, to use the composer’s own term, that is more significant. A singer who would master Norma must have an extraordinary range in every sense, physical and emotional. At the beginning of the second act, she contemplates the murder of her own children (“Teneri, teneri figli”). Bellini described Pasta in this very scene: “She sings and declaims in a way that moves you to tears…. She even made me cry…and I wept for all the emotions I felt in my soul.” She sings and declaims: we forget too easily that for Italian opera, declamation is central. Norma is a tragic opera, not a pretext to hear pretty tunes.

And then there is Norma in all her jealousy, furiously turning on Pollione and Adalgisa as the first act comes to a close. What a different kind of singing is required in “Oh! non tremare, o perfido” as the passionate melody descends precipitously to the low C at the bottom of Norma’s register! In the cadences of this melody, on the other hand, her voice soars two octaves above to the high C. A real Norma has to be able to convince us through that entire vocal range and that entire emotional range.

Finally, she must be capable of a sweet, expansive, sentimental style, as she sings her duet of friendship in a series of thirds with Adalgisa (“Ah! perché la mia constanza”). Bellini learned that style from Rossini’s Tancredi and Semiramide, and it comes as no surprise to learn that Giuditta Pasta was one of the great Tancredis and Semiramides of her time.

In the druid priestess—the woman loved and abandoned, the mother seeking revenge by murdering her own children but unable to complete the dreadful deed, the friend prepared to sacrifice her own happiness for others, the passionate yet tender warrior-woman—Bellini created a character who will live as long as prima donnas aspire to offer their heartfelt prayers to the goddess of the moon.

—Philip Gossett

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The Cast

this season Norma and Tosca at the Met, Rigoletto with the Seattle Opera, and L’Italiana in Algeri with Paris’s Bastille Opera.met appearances Rigoletto (debut, 2009), Il Trovatore, and Armida.career highlights Recent engagements include Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Otello in Frankfurt, Verdi’s Oberto at La Scala, Attila at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, and Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona. He has also led Don Pasquale in Florence, Manon Lescaut in Verona, Lucrezia Borgia and I Capuleti e i Montecchi with the San Francisco Opera, Il Trovatore in Venice, Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Theater an der Wien, L’Elisir d’Amore in Dresden, and Falstaff at the Seattle Opera. He has conducted Rome’s Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of St. Petersburg, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo New City Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

Riccardo Frizza conductor (brescia, italy)

this season Adalgisa in Norma at the Met and the title role of Carmen in Zurich and Beijing.met appearances Maddalena in Rigoletto (debut, 2006) and Carmen.career highlights Recent performances include Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Paris’s Bastille Opera, Carmen in Seoul, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito in Madrid, Adalgisa at Turin’s Teatro Regio, and Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Caramoor Festival. She has also sung Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala, Adriano in Rienzi and Carmen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and in the title role of Ernest Reyer’s Salammbô in Marseille, and Carmen at the San Francisco Opera and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera.

Kate Aldrichmezzo-soprano (damariscotta, maine)

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Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin and Anna Netrebko as Tatiana

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NEW PRODUCTIONSEugene OneginFalstaffDie FledermausPrince IgorTwo Boys MET PREMIERE

Werther

REPERTORYAndrea ChénierArabellaLa BohèmeLa CenerentolaCosì fan tutteL’Elisir d’AmoreThe Enchanted IslandDie Frau ohne SchattenMadama ButterflyThe Magic FluteA Midsummer Night’s DreamNormaThe NoseI PuritaniRigolettoDer RosenkavalierRusalkaLa SonnambulaToscaWozzeck

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The Cast CONTINUED

this season The title roles of Norma and Tosca at the Met, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Vienna State Opera, Tosca in Barcelona and at Covent Garden, and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux with the Canadian Opera Companymet appearances More than 150 performances of 23 roles, including Aida, Luisa Miller, Amelia, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Lina in Stiffelio, Elvira in Ernani, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Roxane in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Musetta in La Bohème, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Micaëla in Carmen, and Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto (debut, 1996).career highlights The title role of Suor Angelica in Los Angeles, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia in Washington, Roxane, Lina, and Leonora at Covent Garden, Hélène in Les Vêpres Siciliennes and Elisabeth in Don Carlo with the Paris Opera, Manon Lescaut and Elena in I Vespri Siciliani at the Vienna State Opera, Roxane at La Scala, and Aida, Amelia, Elvira, Leonora, and the title role of Floyd’s Susannah in Chicago. She is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Sondra Radvanovskysoprano (berwyn, illinois)

this season Pollione in Norma at the Met, Radamès in Aida in Zurich, and Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.met appearances Grigory in Boris Godunov, Luigi in Il Tabarro, and the Prince in Rusalka (debut, 2009).career highlights Recent engagements include Cavaradossi in Tosca at La Scala and for his debut at the Arena di Verona, the title role of a new production of Otello at Covent Garden, and Samson in Samson et Dalila in Geneva. He has also sung Luigi at Covent Garden, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West in Geneva, des Grieux in Manon Lescaut for his 2006 Vienna State Opera debut, Sergey in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with the Latvian National Opera, Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra in Frankfurt, and Otello at the Paris Opera, Rome Opera, Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and in concert with Riccardo Muti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Aleksandrs Antonenkotenor (riga, latvia)

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this season Oroveso in Norma at the Met.met appearances He has been heard in more than 900 performances and 60 roles since his 1971 debut, including Wotan in Wagner’s Ring cycle, Claggart in Billy Budd, Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Scarpia in Tosca, Claudius in Hamlet, Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper in Lulu, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Iago in Otello, Amonasro in Aida, Méphistophélès in Faust, and the title role of Don Giovanni.career highlights Recent performances include Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Doctor in Wozzeck with the English National Opera. He has appeared in all the world’s leading opera houses and with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States. One of the leading interpreters of Wagner’s Wotan, he has sung the role in cycles at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera, among others.

James Morrisbass (baltimore, maryland)

The Cast CONTINUED