FULL NORMA Selections Prague 2007 Olga Makarina, Valentin Prolat, Carmen Oprisanu

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Norma  
• Composer: Bellini Vincenzo  
• Libretto: Felice Romani    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: National Theater, Prague, Czech Republic  
• Recorded: 2007
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Olga Makarina, Valentin Prolat, Carmen Oprisanu, Miloslav Podskalsky, Stanislava Jirku, Vaclav Lemberk
• Conductor: Oliver Dohnanyi  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director: Bruno Berger-Gorski  
• Stage Designer: Daniel Dvorak  
• Costume Designer: Osmany Laffita  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Bruno Berger-Gorski  
• Date Published: 2023  
• Format: Unknown
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Quote from radio.cz:

  After 72 years she returns to the stage of the Prague National Theater: Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma”, of which many only know the single aria “Casta diva”. An international team has rehearsed the rarely performed bel canto opera.

  The versatile German director Bruno Berger-Gorski directed the opera. Talked to the director about the Thursday premiere.
  Bellini’s Norma can be staged in different ways, which way did you choose this time?

  “You say ‘this time’ correctly because it is my second production of ‘Norma’. My first production was at the Amazonas Theater in Manaus, Brazil. At that time I staged it related to the Amazon as a kind of historical drama in the forest. Now in Prague as a capital of Europe, I decided with Daniel Dvorak and Osmany Laffita for a timeless concept, i.e. timeless in that we transposed history after 1940. This is the time of war, but general war, it is not Gaul , occupied by Romans, but it is a soul space. It is an abstract space that is occupied, a closed soul prison of this woman Norma, who knows that she gave birth to two children by an enemy. And in this narrow space of Daniel Dvorak, the best-known stage designer and architect in the Czech Republic, then at the end of the opera there is this grand utopian opening for Pollione and Norma to be reunited utopian finale, all occupying elements disappear. During this time, union with the enemy is not possible and love cannot be continued. I saw that Smetana’s ‘Libuse’ (Libussa) is being performed here at the National Theater. This is the Czech Norma. The story is a little similar, Libuse is a seer, she can read in the future. It’s a recurring theme. And who is a Norma of today?”

  (Visited 104 times, 1 visits today)