La Serva Normina
Decca has had an interesting history recording Bellini’s Norma. Sutherland twice, the first time issued by RCA in the USA but reverted to London/Decca a decade later. Suliotis on 2 LPs with massive cuts. Sutherland with a soprano Adalgisa. Not just any soprano: Caballé! Rumored dialogue at recording session:
Sutherland, receiving a bouquet: Flowers for the diva!
Caballé, presenting that bouquet: Flowers FROM the diva!
I’m sure they both laughed.
Then this version. My, how we have cut down our heroes and heroines to size!
Who thought this was a good idea? From a musicological standpoint it makes sense. It looks primarily like a vanity project. Bartoli has explored the world of Maria Malibran and drawn the conclusion that she ought to be able to sing the same sorts of roles. We have no recordings of Malibran but she was a Garcia singer by both nature and nurture and probably had a voice of great power and compass. Bartoli has great compass and modern sonic engineering. Which can make her audible but cannot turn her from a saucy maid-servant into a tragedy Queen. She just doesn’t have enough voice. Or the gravitas. Her attempts to sound grand and imposing only result in hissy fits. And her aspirated coloratura, aspirated would-be trills, and heavily aspirated consonants fall far short of serving the music or the text. Occasionally there is a lovely long sustained note, usually in the upper octave. But at no point is there a single phrase that cries out for favorable comparison with any of the famous Normas of the past.
Adalgisa is a soprano here, but many sizes smaller (vocally) than Caballé. No physical comparison intended! Sumi Jo sings prettily. But as Sondheim said, pretty isn’t beautiful. Like Bartoli she makes little impact in a role full of drama. I will give her the beauty of the messa di voce high A so often screamed at full tilt in the duet scene with Pollione. I like the idea of an Adalgisa whose voice closely matches the timbre of Norma rather than the deep-dish matronly contralto sound that so often issues from her mouth. But she should sound like she could grow into a Norma, as the original Adalgisa did.
Pollione. What makes him so attractive that two Druid priestesses desire him so? Roman soldier. Manly, Butch. Not here. John Osborn has a bright, attractive tenor voice. Boyish. Cute maybe? Weirdly indistinguishable from Flavio in their recitative scene. Strong upper octave, less below.
Michele Pertusi (Oroveso) makes a welcome impact on his first entrance. Solid, steady tone. Some dull high notes intrude later but overall he is well suited to his role.
It is a BAD sign when the best part of a Norma recording is the orchestra. The playing is brilliant and vivid and colorful. Giovanni Antonini conjures drama from Bellini’s usually plodding recitative chords (probably the least convincing aspect of both Sutherland/Bonynge recordings). Some of the tempi in the formal musical numbers tend to rush. Possibly to suit the underpowered divas? And opening all the cuts does the score no favors. Bellini was not endlessly inventive and some sections really benefit from judicious trimming. The trio that ends Act 1 in particular goes on far too long with no interesting developments and the brisk allegro only reduces it further into flippancy.
There is quite a lot of ornamentation. I love ornamentation (OMIGOD how John Moriarty hated my appoggiature!) but I don’t like much of what they do here. Too much rewriting of whole lines. I was happy to hear an upward leap of a sixth near the end of Casta Diva that evoked Marcella Sembrich—I like hearing the ornaments as belonging to a tradition.
Norma has stayed in the repertory since it premiered and has several valid ongoing performing styles. Sutherland delivers a Norma that Thérèse Tietjens might recognize. As revolutionary as Callas might have appeared she still coached the role and sang it in a tradition that included Ponselle and Cigna. Cecelia Bartoli and her crew here have essentially tossed all that aside and constructed the Norma they believe in. Alas, I don’t.