✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Opera

Norma review ★★★★★, Royal Opera House

12 Sep 16 – 08 Oct 16, Times vary; running time 3 hours 10 minutes

A bright star at Covent Garden eclipses the shortcomings of a new production – and the ROH has opera director

By Claudia Pritchard on 13/9/2016

1 CW reader is interested
The Royal Opera House's new Norma has a spectacular set by Alfons Flores
The Royal Opera House's new Norma has a spectacular set by Alfons Flores
Norma review , Royal Opera House 4 Norma review , Royal Opera House Claudia Pritchard
Merkel, May, possibly Clinton ... the western world is getting used to women at the top, and so the updating of Bellini's opera Norma with its female cult leader feels natural enough.


And it is the natural beauty of the Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, taking on this demanding title role quite early in her career, that is the highlight of a new production at Covent Garden. There were first night boos, but not for Yoncheva, whose intelligently pitched performance never overstretched the voice and found the tenderness in a role that can be strident. Since making her ROH debut in 2012, she has grown with every production, and this is a special moment.


Yoncheva was released from her commitment to sing Mimì in La Bohème by the Metropolitan Opera, New York, to sing this role instead of Anna Netrebko, who withdrew shortly after her casting was announced, earlier this year. Covent Garden definitely got the best of the deal.


But she has a job on her hands. Bellini's opera pitches the Druids against the Romans, so to kick the whole affair into the present day, and turn the Druids into Roman Catholics makes a tremendous muddle of an already tricky plot. Snippets of rituals borrowed from Christianity are bolted together meaninglessly, and the (female) head of the church with her (female) cardinals are hellbent on armed combat and self-immolation. It's quite a long way from the committee meetings and confirmation classes that make up the daily round of most parish priests.


Against this distorted backdrop, it is still possible, however to discern the timeless and universal elements – a love triangle, the twin pulls of motherhood and duty, women united. And it is the scene in which Norma considers destroying her own children, and then is temporarily at peace with the woman who has stolen her secret husband's affections, that is the heart and soul of this production. Like much of the opera, we watch with dread, for the consequences may be terrible.


After designer Alfons Flores's honeycomb towers of little crucifixes, suggesting both the sacred wood in which Bellini intended the action to take place and the tracery of church architecture, we are jolted into cool domesticity: two children lounge on ice blue modular sofas, a rabbit cartoon on their widescreen, a space hopper lolling ready to bounce the little girl in time with the music.


Yoncheva, who has already sung her first big number to the accompaniment of a gigantic, pendular censor, now has frightened bunnies alongside, like a silent backing group – it's nicely done. And Marco Filibeck's lighting really understands the light and shade, the heat and cooling, of emotions.


The Italian mezzo-soprano Sonia Ganassi is lovely as Adalgisa, the friend and colleague who becomes a rival in love. Personally I find it difficult to love the Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja's tremulous Pollione, but he has a following, and it's a matter of taste. The bass Brindley Sherratt plays Norma's father, who is charged in this prouction with a surprise ending.


And so to those boos. They came from seats at all prices, and felt pretty much aimed at the production, not the musicians: there was wonderful chorus singing, and the orchestra under Antonio Pappano were on cracking form. No, it was director Àlex Ollé, of the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus, who challenged a lot of opera-goers with his topsy-turvy take on religion and paganism.


But they will have a while to get used to it – a lavish production like this is not going to be mothballed after one outing. And the incoming director of opera, 37-year-old Oliver Mears, whose appointment was announced on this first day of the 2016/17 season, probably won't mind his new house being a place where passions run high.


Norma is relayed live to cinemas nationwide on 26 September. For more details click here.

by Claudia Pritchard

What Norma review , Royal Opera House
Where Royal Opera House, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD | MAP
Nearest tube Covent Garden (underground)
When 12 Sep 16 – 08 Oct 16, Times vary; running time 3 hours 10 minutes
Price £11 - £225
Website http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/norma-by-alex-olle



Most popular

Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Things to do in London this weekend: 27 - 29 May
Things to do in London this weekend: 27 - 29 May
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

Editor's Picks


  • 1. TICKETS, TRAVEL TIPS AND DINING ETIQUETTE

    Glyndebourne Opera Festival 2016

    2. GLYNDEBOURNE 2017 UNVEILING

    Everything you need to know about the Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2017

    3. ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

    Take a peek at what's on right now

    4. PHILIP GLASS AT 80

    Barbican Centre January 2017

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Dominique Ansel Treehouse
    Read more...
    Map
  • Parsons

    Parsons is a thoroughly old-fashioned spot, with a maroon-tiled facade, a white tiled interior and antique mirrors on which are written their daily changing selection of fresh whole fish which make up most of the mains. We love it.

    Book Map
  • Cora Pearl

    Cora Pearl, the second restaurant from the team behind Kitty Fisher's, takes its name from the infamous 19th-century French courtesan. The menu, consisting of both French and British influenced cuisine, is deceptively simple, with cheese and ham toasties, fish stew, and chocolate ganache on offer.

    Read more...
    Book Map
1

Royal Opera House

Bellini

Opera

You might like

  • Brenda Rae in the title role and James Morris as Dr Schön in Lulu, designed and directed by William Kentridge. Photograph: Catherine Ashmore

    Lulu ★★★★★ review, English National Opera

  • Rosalind Plowright gives a compelling performance as the ageing Countess in The Queen of Spades

    The Queen of Spades review, Opera Holland Park ★★★★★

  • Marc Padmore performs, photo Marco Borggreve

    Schubert's songs, Wigmore Hall

  • Temple Church is the atmospheric venue for a new opera about the Great Fire of London. Photograph: Miranda Parry

    And London Burned, Temple Church



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×