NORMA ARIODANTE PROGRAM FALL 2016 Great opera lives here. Proud sponsor of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2016/2017 Season. 16-1853 Canadian Opera Company Fall House Program Ad_Ev2.indd 1 2016-08-05 3:20 PM CONTENTS A MESSAGE FROM GENERAL DIRECTOR 4 WHAT’S PLAYING: ALEXANDER NEEF NORMA 10 THE DRAMA BEHIND BELLINI’S At its most fundamental, opera NORMA is about compelling, imaginative, 13 GET TO KNOW inspiring storytelling. When music ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER and voices collaborate in the act of storytelling the result can be an 14 WHAT’S PLAYING: ARIODANTE extremely powerful expression of humanity. 20 FROM ARTASERSE TO ARIODANTE This season at the COC we have BIOGRAPHIES: NORMA a remarkable array of stories 25 for you to enjoy—from tales of 28 BIOGRAPHIES: ARIODANTE ancient druids and princesses, to fictional opera divas; from mythic THE BMO EFFECT 31 characters in a mythical land to 32 BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND real-life champions of human rights. Their stories may be different, but 35 BACKING A WINNING TEAM they are deeply felt and intensely 36 MATTHEW AUCOIN: communicated, and they are our Doing What Comes Naturally stories. In them, we see our own struggles and successes, joys and 38 CENTRE STAGE: fears, and we are grateful for the An Experience You Won’t Forget shared experience. 40 MEET THE GUILDS During this 10th anniversary season 42 AN OPEN LETTER FROM JOHANNES DEBUS in our marvelous opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the 44 REMEMBERING LOUIS RIEL Performing Arts, I am particularly to achieving the greatest proud that the COC is a home for heights of artistic excellence, in, 49 CREATING A BETTER DONOR once again, an all-COC season. EXPERIENCE truly special programming devoted 50 HONEY, CHEESE, ART! 56 MANY THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS Recently, the in our new vision of bringing 62 PATRON INFORMATION COC COC has created the transformative experience AND POLICIES a strategic plan of opera to you every day of 365 to focus our the year. Follow these COC365 efforts on those buttons (left) throughout the issues that program to get a better idea GO SCENT FREE are most crucial to our future of how we share with you our In consideration of patrons development. Among other creative initiatives and world- with allergies, please avoid things, this process has yielded a class opera 365 days of the wearing perfumed beauty stronger-than-ever commitment year. products and fragrances! to artistic excellence, expressed COC Program is published three times a year by the Canadian Opera Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent is prohibited. Contents copyright Canadian Opera Company. Direct all advertising inquiries to [email protected]. Program edited by Claudine Domingue, Director of Public Relations; Kristin McKinnon, Publicist and Publications Co-ordinator; and, Gianna Wichelow, Senior Manager, Creative and Publications. Layout by Gianna Wichelow. All information is correct at time of printing. Photo credits are on page 61. CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 3 Marco Berti as Pollione and Sondra Radvanovsky as Norma in the COC’s production of Norma, when it was mounted at San Fransisco Opera in 2014. Part of this production, illustrated over the next few pages, was built at the COC’s 4 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 Scene Shop in Toronto. NORMABY VINCENZO BELLINI Opera in two acts w Libretto by Felice Romani, based on a play by Alexandre Soumet First performance: Teatro alla Scala, Milan on December 26, 1831 NEW COC PRODUCTION Co-production with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona). Last performed by the COC in 2006 October 6, 15, 18, 21, 23, 26, 28, November 5, 2016 Sung in Italian with English SURTITLES™ THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM (in order of vocal appearance) Oroveso Clotilde Lighting Designer Dimitry Ivashchenko Aviva Fortunata^ Duane Schuler Pollione Conductor Chorus Master Russell Thomas Stephen Lord Sandra Horst^**** Flavio Director Stage Manager Charles Sy†*** Kevin NewburyD Jenifer Kowal Norma Assistant Director SURTITLES™ Producer Sondra Radvanovsky* Marilyn Gronsdal Gunta Dreifelds (Oct. 6, 15, 18, 21) Elza van den Heever Set Designer D (Oct. 23, 26, 28, Nov. 5) David Korins Adalgisa Costume Designer D Isabel Leonard** Jessica Jahn Major artist support made possible by Jack Whiteside * Sondra Radvanovsky’s performance is generously sponsored by The Tauba and Solomon Spiro Family Foundation ** Isabel Leonard’s performance is generously sponsored by Sue Mortimer *** Charles Sy’s performance is generously sponsored by Peter and Hélène Hunt **** Sandra Horst and the COC Chorus are generously underwritten by Tim and Frances Price D COC Debut † Current member of the COC Ensemble Studio ^ Graduate of COC Ensemble Studio Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change. ACT I 85 minutes INTERMISSION 25 minutes ACT II 70 minutes Performance time is approximately three hours. CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 5 NOTES The foreboding door to the outside world, the totem bullheads on the wall, and Norma’s children’s miniature Bellini’s Norma is a story about the rituals of sacrifice, both elements of war all reflect this world of sacrifice and public and private, that inform the entire opera; from the conflict. Our space is both a temple and a war factory, as Druid community’s collective sacrifice during wartime the Druids work to build a war machine to unleash upon to Norma’s threatened sacrifice of her own children and, the occupying Romans. In our production, the entire ultimately, her own life. While little is known about actual chorus is preparing the war effort: their distinct clothes, Druid religious rituals, mythology suggests that human hair, and tattoos all augment the feeling of a unified and animal sacrifice were central to the Druid ethos. community pursuing a common cause. Although we have In researching ancient Druid and Gaulish mythology, set the production in a mythic, Game of Thrones-inspired my design team and I were drawn to these images of milieu, Norma feels very contemporary to me. Norma’s sacrifice—like the Ritual of Oak and Mistletoe involving children are already being indoctrinated into a world of the slaughter of two white bulls, as described by Pliny war, with its requisite betrayals and sacrifices. Norma’s the Elder in the first century BCE. We were also inspired moments with her children are deeply moving to me, by images of “sacred forests” and legends that envisaged especially in the hands of the gifted singing actresses trees as the physical manifestation of the gods. As the Sondra Radvanovsky and Elza van den Heever. Her opera illustrates, burning effigies seem to have been rumination about whether or not to kill her own children central to Druid rituals, often taking the form of a wooden envisions both a Medea-like act of revenge and an act or wicker man or other such sculptural representations of of protection from the violent world she knows awaits human beings or animals. them (as in Toni Morrison’s classic novel Beloved). In our production, Norma breaks the cycles of violence as she turns the war machine into an effigy and the instrument of her ultimate sacrifice. Kevin Newbury, director Druidic mythology, and the idea of the “sacred forest,” informed the set design of this production. 6 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 SYNOPSIS her again to come away with him, but she refuses and vows she would rather die than steal him from Norma. ACT I Gaul, 50 BCE, during the Roman occupation INTERMISSION Near a forest at night, the priest Oroveso leads the Druids in a prayer for revenge against the conquering Romans. ACT II After they have left, the Roman proconsul Pollione admits Norma tries to bring herself to kill her children in their to his friend Flavio that he no longer loves the high sleep to protect them from an uncertain future with their priestess Norma, Oroveso’s daughter, with whom he has father. She changes her mind and summons Adalgisa, secretly had two children. He has fallen in love with a advising her to marry Pollione and take the children young novice priestess, Adalgisa, who returns his love. The to Rome. Adalgisa refuses—she will go to Pollione, but Druids assemble and Norma prays to the moon goddess only to persuade him to return to Norma and the women for peace. She tells her people that as soon as the moment reaffirm their friendship. Oroveso announces that a new for their uprising against the conquerors arrives, she commander will replace Pollione and tells the Druids that herself will lead the revolt. At the same time, she realizes they must be patient to ensure the success of the eventual that she could never harm Pollione. When the grove is revolt. deserted, Adalgisa appears and asks for strength to resist Pollione, who finds her crying and urges her to flee with Norma is stunned to hear that Adalgisa’s pleas have not him to Rome. persuaded Pollione, and in a rage she urges her people to attack the conquerors. Oroveso demands a sacrificial Norma tells her confidant Clotilde that Pollione has been victim and Pollione is brought in. Alone with him, Norma recalled to Rome. She is afraid that he will desert her and promises him his freedom if he will leave Adalgisa and their children. Adalgisa confesses to Norma that she has return to her. When he refuses, Norma threatens to kill him a lover. Recalling the beginning of her own love affair, and their children. She calls the Druids back and tells them Norma is about to release Adalgisa from her vows and asks that a guilty priestess must die, referring to herself.