It has been my good fortune
to experience a number of memorable Operatic experiences at the Royal Opera
House and at Cineworld Theatres at Bolden, Newcastle, Nottingham and London in
addition to enjoying live opera more recently in Sunderland and previously in
Newcastle and Leeds. I thought I had witnessed the most emotionally engaging
experience of any live theatrical experience last year at the Royal Opera
House, but that of Norma at the Bolden Cineworld on Monday 26th
September 2016 proved the most complete satisfying blending into a whole of orchestra,
voice, production and set that I have experienced in sixty years having first
been taken to live performances of Carmen, of Pagliacci and Gilbert and
Sullivan as an adolescent.
I arrived late to find someone
sitting in the next seat which was odd because the relay from the Royal the
Royal Opera House was held in theatre 7 one of the biggest at the multiplex and
which was less than a 6th or higher filled.
The woman who immediately engaged in conversation explained that she
usually attended relays at a different
cinema which had failed badly and therefore she came to Bolden having
booked a seat in the area below the staired tiers and found herself alone so had
moved to second seat to one side where I book when performance is located in
the theatre. I was tempted to warn that the relays at Bolden did not always go
without a hitch and I have given up and left it to others to point out to
management that the performance had begun and the lights were still on although
in fairness recently the timing has been spot on.
Unless I am with someone I like
to sit on my own in an aisle seat to the screen facing right of a theatre as it
provides an uninterrupted view, a stretch of the legs possible and not to
bother about intruding on the space of the person in the next seat. However,
given the special nature of the performance and that the stranger was evidently
similarly affected the experience became even more memorable because of the
chat in the interval and at the end.
Because of being busy in the
days before I had not read up on the subject of the Opera other than to look up
what was meant by Bel Canto and only in the information provided at the relay
that the role is regarded as one of the great challenges and where the
recognised outstanding performances within my lifetime were by Maria Callas and
Joan Sutherland. I am yet to find out how the performance of Sonya Yonheva is regarded
by other professionals and Opera critics but I thought the way she projected
the nature of her character through voice and acting was extraordinary,
credible and sustained throughout and on a par with the handful of performances
which I can hear and see in my head and will continue to do so over my
remaining years, although I hope that in time the ROH will issue a DVD so that
I can measure memory against the reality.
Before turning to the two
other leads I must address the production and in particular the sets. The opera
was created in the 1830’s about a Roman controlled Gaul between 50 and 100 BC
and a battle between the religion of the Druids controlled by the virgin high
priestess Norma who had urged the army championing at the bit to rise up
against the Romans to hang fire. The first Act is set at night in a grove and
later at her home. The darkened stage is covered by trees of crosses which are
open to interpretation by the audience…symbolic of the importance of the
religion and perhaps how the four worldwide influential religions of the past
2000 years, Judaism, Catholicism, Protestant and Muslim have all attempted to
fuse religion into the government and laws of state, often persecuting and
killing those who fail to maintain required standards, reject or oppose either
the religion itself or its control of government and the law.
The second aspect of the
production to mention that at the commencement of second Act the scene is set
in the 21st century home of Norma with a large screen TV showing the
film Watership Down, a struggle with the lifestyle of Rabbits and the grave
threat from humans out to destroy and take possession of their homeland. Thus
we are provided with a geopolitical as well as human story across time in which
at one level little has changed.
The major aspect of the story
is the inherent conflict between the ideals of religious faith in which the
priests or priestesses need to be virgins, pure and celibate and calling for
their followers to aspire to their ideals and because of this those that fall
are regarded as having committed the greater crime. The reality has always also
been different with sexual passion and sexual need overcoming the scriptures
and strictures, an issue which has governed my life although it was not until
just before by sixth decade that I came to the truth on finding that my father
had been a senior prior of the Catholic church who aged 28 had met my mother
when she was aged 4 and was then groomed as a pupil teacher, trained as a pianist and organist and house keeper and
teacher, banished from her homeland on
becoming pregnant, never to return, but remaining devout to her faith through
her long life which ender in her hundredth year.
In the Opera Norma has two
children and a relationship in secret with an occupying Roman administrator
Pollione, the Proconsul of Gaul. She has a housekeeper to care for the children
and for those who may question how such secrecy would be possible and kept from
Druids who would find the behaviour unacceptable then my own experience is relevant,
because I was kept locked away
in a bedroom whenever other members of
the my birth mother’s homeland visited at the end of World
War II, never acknowledged by her as her
son in public until she was 96 and entered residential care, effectively
brought up by her sisters one of whom
would have adopted if she had not been prevented from marrying because
of potentially treated abnormality until her admission to hospital at the age of 93 and from which she never recovered. When my birth
mother commenced to practice as an unqualified teacher in England during World
War II only single women could train and practice as teachers something which
continued for a time after the war ended and certainly there would have no
question of a single parent bring given a secured position however able,
talented and committed she was to the profession.
There would have been no
story, no Opera just on this alone. Pollione is not satisfied with a mistress
and not only commence a relationship with another woman, but someone who is
also a Virgin Priestess and the crucial moment in the Opera is when the priestess
who knows nothing of Pollione’s doubling dealing confides her predicament to
Norma. Norma also in effect gives
permission to the priestess, Adalgisa to have the affair, understandably
because she has and is doing so
herself. The discovery is a great shock and at first Norma does everything she
can to discourage Adalgisa from
progressing and presses Pollione to acknowledge her and his children
prepared to break from her religion and roots when he recalled back to
Rome. The breakdown of the situation and
crisis occurs when Pollione is discovered and captured when visiting her in the
quarters for the Priestess and the Druids led by their chief, Norma’s father demands
justice according to their law. And this involves the execution of Pollione and
finding out who he was visiting.
Angry and revengeful the first
reactions of Norma are to withdraw her objection to the army rising up against
the Romans and to protect her children by placing the blame of Adalgisa. But
then she realises Adalgisa is even more a victim of the behaviour of Pollione
than she has been and admits she is the traitor to the religion and pleads to
her father to care and protect their children. He finds this a great challenge
going against everything he believes and governed his life but he brings peace
to his she and Pollione meet their fate on a death pyre in the form of a
burning cross.
The Maltese tenor Joseph
Calleja has a magnificent voice and the close up through the cinema relay
revealed his acting ability and that despite qualms when push came to shove he
was prepared to sacrifice Norman and his children to satisfy his passion. While
at one level Sonia Ganassi does not have the physical presence of the young
virgin priestess she is playing she has the dramatic skill to convince an
audience in close up and participated in some glorious duet singing with both
leads although that of Yoncheva was incredible and the synergy between the
three leads exceptional.
I was overwhelmed by the
production (an added factor is that my father although born in Gibraltar was
taken to Malta for his education and early training for the priesthood as the
eldest son, and it can be assumed without being given a choice, as the family
has a traced history of several centuries in Malta).Mu unexpected companion for the evening also appeared
overwhelmed and remained seated and it was only after the majority of others in
the audience had left the theatre that we commenced to express our admiration floor
what we had experienced, She expressed reservations about the pyre being depicted as a burning cross so I reminded that Druids had
outfits similar to past Orders in the
Catholic Church and the Klu Klux Klan in the USA where the burning cross also
became one of the symbols of white supremacy. It is also noteworthy that among
all the praised lavished on the Opera on Twitter there was one critic of the
number of crosses featured.
The Director of the production is Àlex Ollé (Catalan
pronunciation: [ˈaɫəks uˈʎe]) (Barcelona, 1960) is one of
the six artistic directors of La Fura dels
Baus, one of the most innovative and prestigious theatre companies
on the international scene, which was founded in 1979 and has been characterized
from the start by the search for its own language in which public participation
is key for developing the show. In collaboration with Carlus Padrissa, Ollé
created and directed Mediterrani, mar olímpic, the epicentre of the
opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, an event that
fascinated and left a mark on millions of viewers around the world.(Wikipedia)
Valentino Carrasco was the associate Director and Alfonso Flores was responsible
for the set.
I immediate to see further
performance to find there a handful of the most expensive tickets for a
performance on Saturday and the remaining two others sold out. Although I have
a free first class ticket from Virgin Trains I decided against changing my
plans and will await the DVD unless further performance of the production with
the same lead singers is planned.
Because of the Cineworld monthly subscription the cost to me was £8.10
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