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This program may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. JBI Publishing is a division of Onstage Publications, Inc. Contents © 2018. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 1 MESSAGE FROM NC OPERA Good afternoon and welcome to this performance of one of the most beautiful of all Italian operas, Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. We are thrilled to present this opera in its Triangle premiere. Bellini’s operas are all about beautiful singing, and we have assembled an excellent group of artists to provide just that, under the guidance of bel canto expert Maestro Antony Walker. Norma opens the ninth season of North Carolina Opera. We have sought to present a wide range of operatic repertoire, from popular standards by Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini, to an exploration of the works of Richard Wagner and of the Slavic repertoire. We have presented both what we might call “modern classics” by Britten and Philip Glass, as well as new pieces, most prominently Jennifer Higdon’s and Gene Scheer’s Cold Mountain last season. Norma, however, represents our first trip into the seriousbel canto repertoire. This is a beautiful and important group of operas, one much beloved by singers and audiences alike. They work when the right team of singers can be brought together. We are very excited to assemble this particular cast for this piece. As you all know, the Triangle region is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Every single day scores of people move here, many from cities with longer-established operatic traditions. Many of these people become supporters of North Carolina Opera, and some even become production sponsors! Rosemarie Sweeney is a new Triangle resident and opera lover. It has been fantastic to welcome Rosi to the community. We are very grateful for her production sponsorship of Norma, and I know she is proud to be part of the local premiere of this significant work. Her support, and the support of opera friends like her, keeps North Carolina Opera bringing the best that opera can offer to Triangle audiences. Thank you, please enjoy the performance! Eric Mitchko General Director NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 3 Proudly supporting the North Carolina Opera fully engaged in our community elliottdavis.com NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 4 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2018 2:00PM MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL, RALEIGH, NC DUKE ENERGY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS NORMA Composer: Vincenzo Bellini Librettist: Felice Romani Based on Alexandre Soumet’s play Norma, ou L'infanticide This concert performance sung in Italian with projected English translations World Premiere: December 26, 1831, Teatro alla Scala, Milan American Premiere: April 1, 1836, St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans This performance of Norma is presented with generous support from Rosemarie Sweeney Conductor: Antony Walker Norma: Leah Crocetto Adalgisa: Elizabeth DeShong Pollione: Chad Shelton Oroveso: Ao Li Flavio: Wade Henderson Clotilde: Kathleen Felty Chorus Master: Scott Macleod Rehearsal pianists: Annie Brooks, Kent Lyman, Qiao Zheng Goh Production Stage Manager: Linda T. Carlson Supertitle Operator: Joanna Helms English captions for Norma written and owned by Jonathan Dean © 2003 North Carolina Opera is funded in part by the City of Raleigh based on recommendations of the Raleigh Arts Commission. The performance will last approximately two hours, forty-five minutes including one intermission. NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 5 SYNOPSIS Gaul, 50 B.C.E. ACT II Norma, dagger in hand, tries to bring herself ACT I to murder her children in their sleep to protect In a forest at night, Oroveso, leads the druids them from living disgracefully without a father. and warriors in a prayer for revenge against the She cannot, and instead summons Adalgisa, conquering Romans. After they have left, the begging her to marry Pollione and take the Roman proconsul Pollione admits to his friend children to Rome. Adalgisa refuses: She will go Flavio that he no longer loves the high priestess to Pollione but only to persuade him to return Norma, Oroveso’s daughter, with whom he has to Norma. Overcome by emotion, Norma two children. He has fallen in love with a young embraces Adalgisa, and the women reaffirm novice priestess, Adalgisa, who returns his love. their friendship. Flavio warns him against Norma’s anger. The druids assemble, and Norma prays to the moon The warriors assemble in the forest to goddess for peace. She tells her people that as hear Oroveso’s announcement that a new soon as the moment for their uprising against commander will replace Pollione. Oroveso rages the conquerors arrives, she herself will lead the against the Roman oppression, but tells them revolt. At the same time, she realizes that she that they must be patient to ensure the success of could never harm Pollione. The druids leave; the eventual revolt. when the grove is deserted, Adalgisa appears and asks for strength to resist Pollione, whom she Norma is stunned to hear from Clotilde that loves. He finds her crying and urges her to flee Adalgisa’s pleas have not persuaded Pollione to with him to Rome. She agrees to renounce her return to her. In a rage, she urges her people vows and to go with him. to attack the conquerors. Oroveso demands a sacrificial victim. Just then, Pollione is brought in In her dwelling, Norma tells her confidante as a prisoner. Alone with him, Norma promises Clotilde that Pollione has been called back to him his freedom if he will give up Adalgisa for Rome. She is afraid that he will desert her and her. When he refuses, Norma threatens to kill their children. Adalgisa confesses to Norma both their children and Adalgisa to punish him. that she has a lover. Recalling the beginning of She calls in the druids, tells them that a guilty her own love affair, Norma decides to release priestess must die, and commands them to set Adalgisa from her vows and asks for the name up a pyre as punishment. To the surprise of all, of her lover. As Pollione appears, Adalgisa she confesses before the crowd that she herself answers truthfully. Norma’s kindness turns to is the guilty priestess. Moved by her nobility, fury. She tells Adalgisa about her own betrayal Pollione asks to share her fate. Norma begs by the Roman soldier. Pollione confesses his love Oroveso to watch over her children, then leads for Adalgisa and asks her again to come away her lover to the pyre. with him, but she refuses and declares that she would rather die than steal him from Norma. Synopsis Adapted from Opera News The act closes as Norma threatens revenge. NORTH CAROLINA OPERA WOULD LIKE TO THANK Jane Acquaviva Rae Gulick Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Judy Hendrickson Bailey’s Fine Jewelry Christina Mitchko Carmen Buckner Susan Oller Carolina Ballet Francine Roberson Yvonne Bryant Lorraine Snyder Mary Laurie Cece Summit Hospitality Doctors Making Housecalls Triangle Youth Philharmonic Galloway Ridge at Fearrington NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 6 NORTH CAROLINA OPERA 7 PROGRAM NOTES Vincenzo Bellini has Norma, in 1890, and claimed that the role was long been cherished harder “than all three Brünnhildes put together.” by opera lovers as a Though the work was performed frequently in Italy composer of beautiful, at this time, the Met went over twenty-five years extended melodies. In without it, until Rosa Ponselle undertook the title recent decades, he has role in 1927. Maria Callas sang Norma 92 times, also been identified by from Florence in 1948 until her final performances scholars as an important in Paris in 1965. Other superb exponents of the pioneer of musical role have included Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Romanticism along the Caballé and, more recently, Sondra Radvanovsky. likes of Schumann or Vincenzo Bellini on an Italian banknote on an Italian Bellini Vincenzo Chopin. Bellini (1801- 1835) was born in Catania, in Sicily. He studied at the conservatory in Naples, where he wrote his first operas. He soon made it north to Milan and La Scala, then as now the most important Italian theater. In that time when opera composition flourished, he worked regularly (ifmuch more slowly than Donizetti or Rossini) and wrote several successful operas. Among these were Il pirata (1827) and his setting of the Romeo and Juliet story, I Capuleti e I Montecchi (1830). Bellini and librettist Felice Romani began working with the celebrated singer Giuditta Pasta, whose voice was intriguingly described as exercising, “an instantaneous and hypnotic effect on the soul of the listener.” Their first project together, in early 1831, was La sonnambula.