Bellini - Norma / Patane, Caballe, Vickers, Veasey, Theatre Antique d'Orange

Customer Reviews:

Another Evening Out Of The Golden Age.......2006-12-03

While it's true that the technical aspects of picture and sound are not ideal, this performance of "Norma" is a masterful one. Caballe has never sounded or acted better, and, as no less a worthy than Maria Callas pointed out, the cameraman made Caballe, if anything, look too beautiful. Vickers and Veasey are also at their best. All in all, this is a performance no DVD opera collection should be without.

Wie schrecklich!!!.......2006-05-31

I agree with most reviewers that the performance is absolutely outstanding. M. Caballe/Vickers command a performance that will be tough to match. Not only the singing but acting remains to be commended. So why three stars?
1) The audio recording was absolutely horrid. It was scratchy, as though I was listening to a worn out photograph.
2) The video was gastly. Through most of the performance, one could never clearly see either the stage nor the actors. It would have been best to just turn the video off.
3) The wind did not contribute to the ambiance of the opera. Surely they could have recorded on a less windy night? It was very disturbing to watch actors struggling with their costumes about to be blown away.
Audio and video technology at the time of this performance should have been adequate the favorably capture the full talents of Caballe and Vickers. It is a disgrace to their talents that recording engineers made such a mess of this performance.

Excelente Archivo Musical........2006-02-21

Realmente la Caballe esta en su mejor momento. Estoy muy emocionado de tener este interesant archivo.

O What A Night: Caballe And Vickers In Norma.......2005-12-03

This DVD of Bellini's masterpiece should indeed be in every operaphiles' collection. Filmed on a very windy evening on July 20, 1974 at the Theater Antique in Orange, France, it stars Catalan/Spanish diva Montserrat Caballe who herself believed this single performance to be her greatest operatic achievement. She is in phenomenal voice - a combination of the old Maria Callas theatrical fire and queenly majesty and Caballe's most beautifully bel canto capabilities. Though she is past her prime, you wouldn't know it from this performance. She IS NORMA, period. From the first act in which she appears from the darkness, the wind blowing her gauzy blue gown, she commands the stage. Her "Casta Diva" has never sounded greater. Her coloratura in "A Bello A Mi Ritorno" is still amazing. The Theater Antique is a vast amphitheater that looks like a cross between an old Greek amphitheater and Petra, as there are statues and classical style structures in the backdrop. The windy evening (pure coincidence) is actually suited to the dramatic scenes, for example when Norma confronts Pellione and Adalgisa about their affair and when she strikes the gong to fight against the Romans. Her final act costume- a dark gown, golden tiara, is EXACTLY how I picture Norma. Caballe was fortunate enough to sing opposite the Canadian heldentenor Jon Vickers that night. Vickers specialized in Wagner (Tristan, Siegfried, Parsifal) and he had a huge voice which could rock the rafters, but he was also just as talented singing Italian roles like Don Jose in Carmen and most notably as Verdi's Otello. Here he is in excellent shape, though, he too was older. He had sung Tristan opposite Birgit Nilsson in this exact same location only years earlier. He is the perfectly believable Roman soldier Pellione- dressed in Roman Centurion garb, looking strong and noble. He never misses a note and sings with equal bravura as his diva co-star. The Adalgisa of Josephine Veasey has been criticized (apparently she was the weak one that night) but I have analyzed her singing, even if not purely on vocal technique and I really enjoy it. She is quite pretty (reminds me of Joan Sutherland) and sings with the right degree of youth and dramatic thrust. Her mezzo soprano voice is not that powerful but she sounds just beautiful next to Caballe in the two outstanding duets- "O Rimembrenza" and "Mira o Norma". Bass-baritone Agostino Ferrino is in excellent vocal shape and looks like a very God-like Oroveso, Norma's High Priest father. His performance moved me as well. So all in all, this is probably the best Norma and second to none. It's really unfortunate that Maria Callas did not ORDER her directors to film her performances, that way the rest of us who never saw her on stage could experience the theatrical magic she was supposed to possess. I am quite convinced a filmed performance of her Norma would have surpassed this Norma. Caballe sang Norma for the Victor Opera Series opposite Placido Domingo Fiorenza Cossotto and Ruggero Raimondi and that recording is excellent. The Normas of Jane Eaglen have also thrilled me and the Norma of Shirley Verrett. Fans of Caballe will eat this up.

Situation Norma - All Frenzied Up.......2005-11-06

The negative first... Josephine Veasey's voice, about 80% of the time, has difficulty in singing dead centre in the pitch. She seems to attempt an atomic model of singing in which the pitch, like a pair of electrons, is a cloud of probability rather than certainty. Sometimes the sound she produces is pleasant - and sometimes it's not. She sounds good in the duets with Caballe, though, and there are certainly moments when she does some nice things vocally. Not so with her acting, though... It is, I'm afraid, pure ham. The times she FLINGS herself down onto the ground is too much, both in quality and quantity.

Second negative - Jon Vickers. His is a magnificent voice, of course, but it's not really a bel canto voice, and he fails to portray the beauty of the role of Pollione. He's also not an able actor, and does not manage to convey manly beauty in his portrayal (as Pollione surely must - he has two druidic priestesses in love with him).

I don't count the quality of the DVD as a negative - for me, primarily, the performance is the thing. (The technical quality is perfectly adequate in conveying the performance, and as such, I've no complaints.)

What makes this performance a 5-star performance...? Montserrat Caballe. I'd never have believed Caballe could give such a supremely beautiful performance of this extremely difficult role. Never. The enthusiastic reviews here encouraged me to purchase the DVD, but I was still worried... Would she sound like the hooting and large-sized woman I was accustomed to seeing? I'd never really understood what the fuss was about, concerning Caballe, until I chanced upon a recording of I Stranieri by Bellini, with Caballe singing so exquisitely that it was like a silken ladder to God.

But almost everything else of her performances has failed to impress me. I've heard the camel-sneering arthritic vocal attack problem. I've heard the painful and squally timbre. I've seen the apparently self-satisfied persona standing on stage... I was afraid of all of that happening in this performance...

... and it was not so.

Instead, the watchers were divinely blessed by a performance so sublime that one is stricken with agreement when Adalgisa sings "sublimi'accenti", and when Norma sings of herself as "sublime woman". Sublime, indeed... Vocally, exquisitely beautiful and full of the unconscious grandeur Norma MUST have. Caballe WAS Norma. I can well understand why Callas (another great Norma - perhaps the greatest of them all) signified her approval of this performance. The acting! It was unexpectedly perfect! Caballe was convincing and ravishing, overcoming without any effort at all the fact that she was less than sylph-like and not in the first flush of youth. That simply melted away, and we were left with the essence of Norma, the woman who struggles with love, guilt, political worries, fear of infidelity, jealousy, and finally a nobility of self-sacrifice that will leave no tear unwept.

The performance is outdoors - there is a wind that stirs and sometimes grabs the costumes of the performers. This does not detract an iota from the performance - rather, it gives it an uncanny sense of realism.

The Oroveso was fine - his voice had real depth and passion, and he looked the part beautifully.

The high-points - the incredibly beautiful aria Casta Diva, the duets between Adalgisa and Norma, the trio between Norma, Adalgis and the faithless Pollione - are truly high points. If they don't make you get up and shout "Brave! Brave!", nothing will! The crowd in this outdoor theatre can be heard and seen going berserk with applause, and one appreciates why - they were seeing a historic Norma that the whole world should regard as irreplaceable and precious.

This is Norma as it should be. One might wish for a more ideal Pollione, and a better Adalgisa, but let's face it - the opera stands or falls with its Norma. Here... the performance does more than stand. It... soars.

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