Recommended for Grades 6-12
In this resource, you will:
- Learn the opera’s background and synopsis
- Meet the opera’s composer
Norma
by Vincenzo Bellini
Norma
by Vincenzo Bellini
A quick overview of Bellini’s 1831 operatic tragedia lirica.
Background
For operatic sopranos, the role of Norma is equivalent to the role of Hamlet for stage actors. It is astoundingly difficult vocally, musically, and dramatically.
Bellini excelled in the art of vocal writing, and his melodies are long-breathed, graceful, and demand extraordinary breath control and flexibility—the quintessence of the Italian musical style known as bel canto (beautiful singing).
One could almost say that his works are about the beauty of the human voice.
Bellini died at the age of 33, the composer of only 11 operas.
Synopsis
Act I
In the sacred forest of the Druids, Oroveso and his followers await the rising of the new moon so they can begin their rites. They hope that Oroveso’s daughter, the high priestess Norma, will call for war against their Roman conquerors.
The Roman Pro-consul Pollione and the centurion Flavio enter. Pollione’s clandestine love for Norma, who has secretly borne him two children, is now dead, and he is now enamored with another priestess, Adalgisa, who returns his affection. Pollione reveals that he fears Norma’s retaliation. The Romans hurry away when the Druids return.
Norma, arriving to lead the rites, tells the Druids that it is too soon for an uprising. She prays to the goddess of the moon for peace for the present. Norma vows to lead the revolt herself when the time is ready. When the Druids clamor for Pollione to die first, Norma realizes that she could never harm her beloved. Alone, Adalgisa prays for the strength to resist Pollione. But when the Roman soldier visits her in secret, he persuades her to flee with him to Rome, where he has been recalled. Adalgisa goes to Norma and begs to be released from her vows now that she has fallen in love.
Reminded of her own secret romance, Norma sympathetically agrees. But when Adalgisa says that her lover is Pollione, who arrives at that moment, Norma informs her of Pollione’s faithlessness. Adalgisa now refuses Pollione’s pleas to come away with him, as Norma furiously denounces him.
Act II
Alone with her children, Norma contemplates killing her own offspring in revenge for Pollione’s infidelity. Embracing them, she summons Adalgisa, proposing that the younger priestess should marry Pollione and go to Rome on the condition that she also take the children with her and care for them after Norma’s death. Adalgisa insists that she will instead persuade Pollione to return to Norma.
Oroveso, concerned about Pollione’s unknown replacement, bids the Druids to await their coming revenge with patience. Norma still hopes for reconciliation with her former beloved, but her friend Clotilde tells her that Pollione now plans to abduct Adalgisa by force. Norma immediately calls her people to war. Pollione is soon captured in the priestesses’ cloister, but Norma is unable to strike his death blow.
Left alone with him, she offers him life if he will abandon Adalgisa. He refuses, and she threatens to murder both him and his children and to punish Adalgisa for breaking her vows. Summoning the Druids, she announces that a guilty priestess must die in a sacrificial fire. “It is I,” she then says, for she plans to die with Pollione in the flames.
Stunned at her bravery, Pollione once more feels his former love for her. Norma asks Oroveso to care for her children after her death. Norma and Pollione are led to the pyre together.
by Mark A. Lyons
Meet the Artists
Listen to the Story
Norma []
Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein takes you through the musical world of Bellini’s 1831 tragic opera, Norma.
Watch an Excerpt
The great Maria Callas performs an aria from her signature role, Bellini’s druid priestess Norma, with the Orchestre de l’Opera National de Paris and Georges Sebastian. Recorded live at the Palais Garnier on the 19th of December 1958, this concert marked the soprano’s debut at the Paris Opera, a major social event for Parisians and for which Callas donned her most elegant couture and a million dollars’ worth of jewelry.
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