Oh where can we hear such an exciting Norma today?? Such stupendous artistry has become extinct. We have to put up with pale imitations of the real thing :( Viva Callas! Viva Stignani!
Dear GOD!..... I was listening for the D6 and found it... that'll be the bit where my hair blew backwards from the screen, as if caught in a wind tunnel! The like of which will never be seen (or heard!) again.
Wow...the power in that voice! I imagine Callas as a very different "Norma" from Caballe...fiercer, more magisterial, less maternal. Both sublime, of course.
Yes, Norma as brought to life by Callas is a leader. I have no trouble at all believing that her people obey her when she asks them not to start a war yet... or when she tells them to take up arms. And at the same time, she's human, she falls for Pollione, she loves her children, and she has compassion and understanding for Adalgisa. A very complex role, a beautiful role, possibly my favourite.
@@veramayer9571 Vocally Norma has everything from dramatic soprano, to lyrical soprano, to dramatic coloratura, to dramatic mezzo... emotionally? from Heroic Priestess, to vulnerable Mother, to jealous mistress, to tragic betrayed woman in love, to epic tragic self sacrifice... multi-facet both Vocally and Interpretively... that is why it is considered the No1 Assoluta role and even in our days extremely few singers sing it and most of the times they are dramatic sopranos who scream the role instead of singing it...
That is the wonder of music. The printed score is a roadmap. How the journey is navigated is up to the drivers...the performers, I mean. Interpretations are infinite, especially with composers of genius.
Maria and dame Joan met twice onstage, this is the first time as dame Joan sings Clotilde and the second is the Covent Garden Aida where dame Joan sang la Sacerdotessa... when dame Joan came to Athens for the Callas Competition, Thanasis Lalas interviewed her and she said two things about Maria: 1. Maria was born a Legend, 2. While onstage in this Norma, doing the dress rehearsal, Maria approached dame Joan and whispered to her ear: I should have gone to pee before coming onstage... Maria had also said to dame Joan (this comes from another source) in this Norma: Soon you will be singing your own Norma (how Maria felt that from dame Joan singing Clotilde in 1952, thats another story)
I always feel just a little sorry for Pollione here, annihilated as he is by Norma and Adalgisa united in their wrath and outrage against him... even though of course he brought it on himself with his midlife crisis.
@@LohengrinO definitely not annihilated vocally in this case, I agree! But whenever I listen to Norma, I always picture this scene in my mind's eyes with Pollione shrinking before Norma and then retreating, step by step, as she towers above him in a rage 😅 And what a blow it must have been to his pride to hear Adalgisa say that she'd rather die than go with him, immediately after he said she was his destiny!
