Norma

To those who turned a deaf ear to Bellini’s bel canto drama, hearing in it nothing more than “ordinary Italian clanging,” the young Wagner countered that he knew of no comparable “portrait of the soul to that of this wild Gallic seeress, whom we see passing through all the phases of passion.” And indeed: With the priestess who serves her gods and therefore wishes to remain chaste, who as a spiritual authority provides guidance to her subjugated people while at the same time standing by her love for one of the occupiers, even as he abandons her, Bellini portrays the stirring double life of a woman capable of love to the extreme — embodied by Kammersängerin Diana Haller in the revival of Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito’s acclaimed production.