Norma

The Musical Theatre presents Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma, directed by Adolf Shapiro with Hibla Gerzmava in the title role.

The Italian premiere of Norma took place on 26 December 1831 in La Scala in Milan. Four years later the opera was presented in Russia by a German company and the first production took place in St Petersburg in 1837. Despite its popularity, however, Bellini’s opera is rarely performed in Russia as it requires virtuoso mastery of the bel canto technique and the role of Norma is one of the most difficult of the soprano repertoire. This is the first time Norma will be performed at the stage of the Musical Theatre.

The conflict between duty and passion that forms the basis of the original storyline has never lost (and will probably never lose) its relevance. The composer and the libretto’s author, having placed their quite Italian heroes in the I century B.C., and, moreover, having turned them into Druids fighting against conquering Romans, presented the performance’s creators with a dilemma: either to try, following the stage directions, to recreate the customs and rites of the unknown tribe, or, having caught the sound of the great melodies of Bellini, to take into account the music of the unknown tribe. Bellini’s great melodies, or to treat the circumstances of the time and place as a conditional form. The director and the artist proposed the second way. It is a question of composing a poetic work. More precisely, a poem on the main themes that art deals with: faith – love – death.