Customer Reviews

Bellini - Norma / Patane, Caballe, Vickers, Veasey, Theatre Antique d'Orange

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the legendary Caballé Norma, a live outdoor performance filmed in the Théātre Antique Orange in Provence in 1974. Like Callas, Caballé's live performances frequently exceed her studio renditions of the same work. There are several recordings of her in this role. Generally, they are hit or miss but that night she got it absolutely perfect: a true goddess with a voice of an angel floating ethereally. She herself is said to regard it as her finest recorded performance. It is musically and dramatically thrilling. Caballé, who was later accused of being motionless and indifferent on stage, is at her most committed here.

Patané approaches the score as if it were early Verdi. His lead and the response of all on stage give this performance a majestic grandeur with a sustained rhythmic thrust. Vickers is at his prime here. He did not record the role anywhere else. The other soloists all stand out. The tension electrifies the entire performance. Even the mistral (a veritable windstorm) joins in a role of its own to magnify the dramatic effect. It was later imitated in other productions. There is no other Norma of this caliber. It is simply a miracle.

The audio was recorded in one evening and combined with video filmed during several performances, with hardly any lip sync problems. The film has been available from a variety of sources over the years. This one is a significant improvement over previous VHS and LaserDisc versions. Three publishers currently issue it on DVD, Hardy Classics being the best, but only in PAL. It is the only PAL DVD that I am aware of that is offered for sale in North America by one on-line retailer. This reflects on Hardy's reputation, as well as on that of this performance. Amazon offers the new VAI issue, obviously in NTSC. Prior to this issue the only NTSC version was from the elusive Japanese Dreamlife company, for three times the price.

The sound is in mono. I need to emphasize that there have been better audio versions available of the same event on CD. Opera fans that are familiar with them may have issues with the sound. The wind blowing into the microphones presented problems that different engineers solved with varying degrees of success. One should not expect a film that compares with the best of today's technical standards. Rather, it compares favorably with other historic performances.

Despite the technical issues, it is in a category of its own. Many opera fans consider it the single most important video of a complete live performance available.

I saw a clip from this film many years ago on a late night TV documentary on the career of Caballe. I have been trying to track down a copy for years and so when I saw this DVD on sale in the Royal Opera House Shop (Covent Garden) I snapped it up. I have to tell you it one of the best things I have seen or heard. Gramphone Magazine (March 2003) describes Pierre Jordan's film as "a priceless document in the history of opera.", and that is no exageration. How different from that travesty of a DVD from Orange with Birgit Nilson in Tristan und Isolde.
Caballe's performance is just perfection personified, I can say no more, and Gramphone's comment that "the others in the cast are worthy partners, and that says much, though they all individually deserve more" is so true. Except they deserve much much more, Josephine Veasy makes a very moving Adalgisa and Jon Vickers a heroic Pollione - in fact the whole thing is just superb. On the down side (although this is really not a problem) the sound isn't fully syncronised - but the camera keeps a distance that adds even more atmosphere to this wind swept production and so you hardly notice the pour lip synch. As for the Mistral, for once I welcome it's presence - the production team couldn't have planned it better.

I hope you buy this DVD, and that you get as much pleasure out of it as we have. Caballe describes it as "the greatest single performance of her career", and one can't argue with the great lady. Her Cast Diva is sublime, and it's hardly believable but she gets better and better throughout the preformance.

A wonderful document of a very special night in the history of opera.

I purchased this DVD after reading an unqualified review of it in Opera News, and I wasn't disappointed. Caballe's perfect use of gentle rubato and elegant phrasing were a revelation and must surely must be how the composer intended the work to be sung, always sounding so natural and movingly effective. One should remember that Chopin in trying to instruct his pupils on phrasing suggested they go to the opera and listen to Bellini! (Chopin admired Bellini to the extent that he also requested he be buried next to Bellini!) And to me, this performance is a lesson in interpretation that harkens back to that romantic age. Comparisons with Callas are unnecessary and irrelevant. Callas herself saw the first commerical release of this performance as a film in Paris, commented on how beautiful Caballe looked in the film, then called Caballe and commented on the performance and "the greatness of your service both to the music and the character." Callas later sent Caballe the earings Visconti had given her on the occassion of her own 1955 performances of Norma at La Scala. Even Callas knew that no one "owns" a role exclusively as has been suggested in some of the other comments. Norma is a noble but dramatically reserved work. But within that style, Caballe shows true passion and fury in her interactions with her Pollione and is so very moving near the end as she pleads with her father - unequalled really, in that scene. The other cast members are not the revelation that Caballe is in the role, but they are good. Vickers is interesting though somewhat unusual in the role of Pollione. The outdoor theater is a magnificant setting and the costumes stunningly beautiful and effective. It was a cold and windy evening, but hey, its a live outdoor performance, and the added virtues of a live performance often outweigh the disadvantages unless one is just seriously limited to accepting only perfectly commercially recorded Cd's. It is not a studio recording, nor represented as such, but the sound is fine enough to never seriously distract from the performance. My God! we are lucky to have this preserved and available!

One could summarize this production of Norma as a bravura performance marred by Neolithic recording quality. To assign a meaningful numerical rating that will help you decide whether or not you would like it requires knowledge of how much importance you attach to sound and picture. For those who cherish their Furtwangler and Toscanini, this becomes a five star DVD, whereas others who feel that the world has uncovered enough great talent in forty-seven years of stereo recording that they shouldn't have to put up with mono sound, this will rate as a one star DVD. As an only Norma, it is less likely to please.

What do I mean by Neolithic? Théātre Antique d'Orange is an open-air venue and thus the worst place to record an opera video. The orchestra sounds like they're two blocks away and when the wind whips up and batters the mike a dull rumble camouflages the pianissimi. The singers suffer less, but the mono sound rings cavernous and tinny. Poor lighting, usually from two spotlights, leaves most of the stage buried in shadow and the background setting, in the rare moments when light exhumes it, emerges in nebulous blotches of color. The picture too looks blurry and because the lighting comes from the front, the side angle shots introduce further confusion, losing faces and figures in shadow.

Despite the fog of technical defects, one can readily discern an inspired performance from a trio of voices expansive enough to meet the daunting challenge of filling a spacious amphitheater with music on a windy night. Delicately nuanced shading of dynamics, velvety timbre, and winged coloratura---all gild the endearing Norma of Montserrat Caballé. The "Casta diva" in smooth undulations shimmers with sacral splendor. I part company with critics who, deaf to the fortissimo of subtlety, deem harshness essential to expressiveness and dismiss her as all beauty and no emotion, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Her Norma is deeply moving, heartbreaking in the Medea scene that opens act two and the final three pieces that close the opera.

A nimble, graceful, and impassioned voice, Josephine Veasey pairs especially well with Caballé and creates a memorable Adalgisa. At first consideration, Jon Vickers and bel canto would seem to go together like strawberry ice cream and liverwurst. After all, one doesn't light a candle with a blowtorch. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised by the fiery tenor, who modulates this explosive apparatus of his to offer a robust and satisfying Pollione. Then too, one needs a blowtorch to light a candle on a windswept night such as this.

The primordial struggle of man versus the elements lends this performance an heroic quality---one I would gleefully exchange for a roof, floodlights, and stereo.

Norma was the very first opera I fell in love with, hearing the unparallelled Sutherland/Horne pairing. On recordings, I have enjoyed Sills, Verrett, and sutherland, but something was always lacking. Inthis historic DVD, Caballe IS Norma. I had seen Caballe in Semiramide, paired with Horne in San Francisco, and was impressed at her coloratura, which I was unaware was so good. I have always thought of Caballe as the "plant me near a column, and I'll sing" type of singer. Her dramatic intensity in thids Norma was stunning - other reviews note the effecs of the wind on performance night - I just had the feeling that in the "Casta diva", I WAS in the sacred grove of the Druids. The other singers were very good, not earth-shaking; however, Jon Vickers' beautiful Wagnerian tenor is a bit un-Bellini here. I never saw Callas sing Norma, but I am sure she did not do much better dramatically, and certainly not vocally, as Caballe. Buy this recording - it is essential for the serious fan of Bellini. Larry Katz

I bought this DVD because I had read that it was one of the greatest opera performances ever recorded. Indeed, Caballe herself had said she felt it was the best thing she had ever done. The actuality more than lived up to the advance notices. Caballe, Vickers and all hands are in superb voice; the occasion, with the winds occasionally whipping at the costumes of the performers, has a unique sense of excitement and accomplishment. This is one not to be missed.

The negative first... Josephine Veasey's voice, about 80% of the time, has difficulty in singing dead centre in the pitch. She seems to attempt an atomic model of singing in which the pitch, like a pair of electrons, is a cloud of probability rather than certainty. Sometimes the sound she produces is pleasant - and sometimes it's not. She sounds good in the duets with Caballe, though, and there are certainly moments when she does some nice things vocally. Not so with her acting, though... It is, I'm afraid, pure ham. The times she FLINGS herself down onto the ground is too much, both in quality and quantity.

Second negative - Jon Vickers. His is a magnificent voice, of course, but it's not really a bel canto voice, and he fails to portray the beauty of the role of Pollione. He's also not an able actor, and does not manage to convey manly beauty in his portrayal (as Pollione surely must - he has two druidic priestesses in love with him).

I don't count the quality of the DVD as a negative - for me, primarily, the performance is the thing. (The technical quality is perfectly adequate in conveying the performance, and as such, I've no complaints.)

What makes this performance a 5-star performance...? Montserrat Caballe. I'd never have believed Caballe could give such a supremely beautiful performance of this extremely difficult role. Never. The enthusiastic reviews here encouraged me to purchase the DVD, but I was still worried... Would she sound like the hooting and large-sized woman I was accustomed to seeing? I'd never really understood what the fuss was about, concerning Caballe, until I chanced upon a recording of I Stranieri by Bellini, with Caballe singing so exquisitely that it was like a silken ladder to God.

But almost everything else of her performances has failed to impress me. I've heard the camel-sneering arthritic vocal attack problem. I've heard the painful and squally timbre. I've seen the apparently self-satisfied persona standing on stage... I was afraid of all of that happening in this performance...

... and it was not so.

Instead, the watchers were divinely blessed by a performance so sublime that one is stricken with agreement when Adalgisa sings "sublimi'accenti", and when Norma sings of herself as "sublime woman". Sublime, indeed... Vocally, exquisitely beautiful and full of the unconscious grandeur Norma MUST have. Caballe WAS Norma. I can well understand why Callas (another great Norma - perhaps the greatest of them all) signified her approval of this performance. The acting! It was unexpectedly perfect! Caballe was convincing and ravishing, overcoming without any effort at all the fact that she was less than sylph-like and not in the first flush of youth. That simply melted away, and we were left with the essence of Norma, the woman who struggles with love, guilt, political worries, fear of infidelity, jealousy, and finally a nobility of self-sacrifice that will leave no tear unwept.

The performance is outdoors - there is a wind that stirs and sometimes grabs the costumes of the performers. This does not detract an iota from the performance - rather, it gives it an uncanny sense of realism.

The Oroveso was fine - his voice had real depth and passion, and he looked the part beautifully.

The high-points - the incredibly beautiful aria Casta Diva, the duets between Adalgisa and Norma, the trio between Norma, Adalgis and the faithless Pollione - are truly high points. If they don't make you get up and shout "Brave! Brave!", nothing will! The crowd in this outdoor theatre can be heard and seen going berserk with applause, and one appreciates why - they were seeing a historic Norma that the whole world should regard as irreplaceable and precious.

This is Norma as it should be. One might wish for a more ideal Pollione, and a better Adalgisa, but let's face it - the opera stands or falls with its Norma. Here... the performance does more than stand. It... soars.

The principals of this opera sing their hearts out with total commitment, and abandon themselves totally to the emotional depths of the characters. What more could you want? Beauty of tone and accuracy of pitch? Well, they do that as well. This is in-your-face interpretation of a great opera, and the singers make a great case for the opera, forcing the viewer/listener to accept Norma on its own terms. In summary, the singing is gorgeous enough to melt the most detached listener.

There are a few (albeit not very many) visual treats, primarily Montserrat Caballe gesticulating grandly with a relentless wind blowing the various veils and capes surrounding her into the wind with an extraordinary effect reminiscent of ancient paintings of mythic characters performing their great deeds with a mighty wind blowing through everything.

Yes, the singing is great and it's too bad about the wind in the period microphones, but the performance is so magnificent that you don't care about the mediocre sound quality. Really. This performance, perhaps more than many others of various operas that I've experienced, truly defines that elusive and often too easily applied attribute of "classic historical performance". I really cannot imagine a Norma sung with more commitment and excitement. The intensity is almost unbearable. This is opera as concentrated passion. Don't miss it.

After the legendary Callas performances, the world indeed thought everything about Norma had been said. Yet along came Montserrat Caballe who discovered a whole new way to portrait this wonderful character. This is arguably her best performance and how lucky we are that it was videotaped!

When I listen to Callas' Norma, what impresses me is Callas' drama but when I listen to Caballe what I hear is Bellini's drama! This is what makes Caballe stand out! She uses the drama that Bellini has injected in his music. Take the cavatina and cabaletta; in the prayer she sounds serene but when hoping for the return of Pollione her singing is filled with love and anticipation. The entire performance is full of similar examples. Can you imagine a more convincing mother? During teneri o figli when she spins those tear-jerking pianissimos that make me wish I were that child in her arms! They might be pianissimos, but they fill the entire theatre! Then in "in mia man alfin" and "gia me posco" at first Bellini's music is brutal and so is Caballe, taking advantage of her spinto qualities. Notice how firm and strong she sounds. As soon as Norma gets what she wants, the music changes and so does Caballe's singing! Her lighter, lovelier voice shows Norma's contentment. By the end of the performance she had me sitting in front of my TV set in tears! Her plead to Oroveso is heartbreaking! No wonder it woke his fatherly instinct. NEVER before have I heard Norma's emotions being delivered with such intelligence and musicality.

Her movements are few and sincere. Her physical acting is based more on hand gestures and facial expressions and in my opinion this suits a high priestess well. It makes Norma look authoritative and disciplined in front of her people. Caballe's Adalgisa, the less famous Veasey is superb. They wisely dressed her up in white to make Adalgisa look younger than Norma and it works! Her usually light voice also helps contrary to other low or matrony mezzo voices. She compliments Caballe's Norma wonderfully and their duets are ravishing. Veasey's stage presence is not always interesting but shows Adalgisa's anxiety and insecurities.

Vickers has a big voice but too often sounds snarly while his poor Italian accent is again obvious. Noticeable is also how much effort he makes to sing some passages especially when you see Caballe next to him singing like a machine. She by the way has no trouble coping with Jon's Wagnerian power. Ferrin finally is a noble Oroveso. Patane is a both sensitive and grand conductor.

What a glorious evening! I wish I were there to applaud them and especially the grand Monsterrat!

We are in eternal debt to VAI for their restoration of this live performance. I don't think we will live to hear this performance equalled never mind surpassed. We must be equally grateful to the sound engineers who preserved this classic performance for those not privileged to have been at the Theatre Antique d'Orange on July 20th 1974. According to one of the previous reviewers Caballe is supposed to have said that this was the best performance ot her career. We cannot argue with that. Stunning, dramatic vocalism with purity of tone and power to embrace it all, this Norma is immortal! Vickers and Veasey make it a wondrous team. Ferrin is not to be dismissed either. Too bad the video doesn't match the excellent mono sound which I find it difficult to belive is mono. It's hard to follow up on the previous reviewers. They've said it all. Every opera enthusiast must expereince this performance! Woudn't suprise me if some of the audience were still there applauding at the Theatre Antique d'Orange.