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High drama, low marks

Great singing saves a tepid new production
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 7th, 2007 issue

Photo by Hana SmejkalovÁ
Olga Makarina brings a strong voice and a spurned lover's anguish to Norma.
Norma

When: Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m.
Where: National Theater
Tickets: 30–900 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venue
Sung in Italian, with English and Czech surtitles

Even the program booklets are smaller in this season of tight arts funding, with the pint-size version for the National Theater’s newest opera production, Norma, not much bigger than a well-traveled passport. The same might be said for the production itself, which never quite fills the large canvas demanded by this passionate work of Italian Romanticism.
Richard Wagner was a fan of Norma, composed by Vincenzo Bellini in 1831 with a libretto by his regular collaborator Felice Romani. Though it seems light years removed from the cosmic Sturm und Drang of Wagner’s work, it’s easy to see the attraction. There’s a unity of music and text rare for the period, a seriousness of subject matter and purpose unheard-of in early 19th-century opera and a commanding, complex heroine at the center of the piece.
Norma is a Druid high priestess who harbors a secret: She’s romantically involved with Pollione, a member of the occupying Roman guard, whom her Celtic followers want to drive from their lands. Their union has produced two sons, but Pollione has no intention of being a good family man. He’s already fallen for another priestess, and is planning to flee to Rome with her. When all this becomes known — with an angry uprising simmering in the background — the stage should explode in political and emotional fireworks.
That never quite happens in this production, though a number of good things do. The three lead singers — Russian soprano Olga Makarina in the title role, Romanian mezzo-soprano Carmen Oprisanu as the priestess Adalgisa and local tenor Valentin Prolat as Pollione — are uniformly strong, especially in the duets and trios. Makarina has a warm, lustrous voice that is probably not right for the part of Norma, which seems better-suited to a dramatic soprano. But anguish and heartbreak are palpable in every note she sings, and she and Oprisanu work off each other very well.
Director Bruno Berger-Gorski writes in the program notes about his rationale for transposing Norma to the 1940s, emphasizing the timelessness of war, political oppression and the raging passions of a betrayed heroine. It’s an admirable goal, but doesn’t quite work here. There are simply too many references to taking up swords against the oppressors and secret Druid ceremonies in the woods to make a modern setting credible, or at least not jarring when what you’re hearing and seeing don’t mesh. Even the movements of the singers onstage seem disjointed, most notably when Makarina and Prolat have to execute an awkward lover’s-embrace roll-and-tumble across the couch onto the floor, which would take pro wrestlers to execute properly.
The sense of dislocation is reinforced by the single set, a gray, blank-walled affair that has to serve as both elegant living quarters and a gathering spot in the woods. A piano and divan parked at opposite ends of the stage fit the opening scene grafted onto the piece, but make no sense at all the rest of the night. Especially with a standard repertoire piece like Norma, the set designer (Daniel Dvořák in this case) and director have an absolute right to recast it in a way that they feel adds new meaning and dimensions. But is it too much to ask that the changes heighten, rather than dilute, the dramatic effect? As Norma calls the Druids to arms in Act II of this production, instead of brandishing swords they’re gathering up couch cushions scattered across the stage.
That said, this short run is worth catching, if for no other reason than that it’s a new piece in a season of paucity. And whatever the deficiencies of this particular production, Norma is a great work with everything an engaging opera should have: high drama, combustible characters, war, love, betrayal and death. If it never catches fire, other than a bit of stage pyrotechnics at the very end, it’s not the fault of the cast, whose singing carries the evening. And in this season of gray skies and gloomy arts forecasts, an evening of dramatic bel canto is something to be appreciated and enjoyed.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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