Gabrielli's sensational season marked a turning point in the fortunes of the opera house. With financial stability now achieved, the King's Theatre began to develop into a flourishing concern, a fact recognised by critics and supporters alike. Brooke, moreover, was steadily gaining in confidence as a manager. Indeed, the forceful manner with which the first crisis of the new season was resolved suggests that she was beginning to gain a degree of ascendancy over her singers.

Finding a worthy successor to Gabrielli was always going to be difficult, but it soon became evident that Brooke's choice, Anna Pozzi, was likely to fail. She arrived in the autumn of 1776 and first impressions at least were favourable. She was deemed ‘young, handsome, and possessed of a voice uncommonly clear, sweet, and powerful’. Twining was visiting London, and Burney tried to persuade him that he would like her. He replied: ‘I shall forgive her a great deal, if she will but get at my entrailles now & then.’ Pozzi, however, was obviously inexperienced, both as a singer and an actress, and she was superseded by Cecilia Davies ‘before the season was far advanced’. This was to place a very kind interpretation on her undignified demotion, for seldom can a ‘first’ singer have been ditched so rapidly as was the unfortunate young Italian.

Considerations on the State of the Stage

As an Act of Parliament passed in the Reign of His late Majesty restricting Theatrical performances, it is proposed to examine into the Cause, as &is not impossible it may be understood to have its rise from a presumption that the Number existing at that time was prejudicial to Society in general: but this was not the Case – for its affects are directly contrary, as can easily be proved from various instances & Reasons – but prior thereto it is fit to shew whence the restriction took its rise, – about the year 1738 a Theatre was opened in Goodmans feilds Wh for some time performed Theatrical Peices unmolested – their success encouraged a Broken Wit (says Cibber) to collect a 4th Compy in the Hay market; who soon finding the best Plays ill performed turned to a bad Accot, thought it necessary to give the Public some extraordinary peices, of such a Specie that no bad Acting coud Spoil; and that from their Nature, shoud, if not draw the attention of the Judicious, at least attract that of the Million (the Mob): under this distress he became Intrepidly abusive and licentious & in several Frank and free Farces, he pelted his Superiours and seemed to Aim at the destruction of every Idea of distinction in Mankind, both on the Heads of Religion, Governmt, Priests, Ministers & Judges; all were leveled by this Draw-cancer in Witt, who Spared neither Friend nor Foe till at last by his own Poetic Fire (like a second Erostratus) he consumed his own Stage, by writing up an Act of Parliament, for the purposes before recited – thus farr Cibber who wrote at the time the Act passed: but it was suspected that this Adventurer was hired to do this dirty business by the Patentees, who possibly were apprehensive if some Check was not given their Emolumts woud soon decrease.

Brooke's growing experience as an opera manager is shown by the fact that her preparations were much further advanced in the summer of 1775 than they had been the previous year. The major stars, Gabrielli, Rauzzini and the new buffo Trebbi, were all under contract. One important matter remained to be resolved – the programme. Well aware of the lack of good opera buffa repertoire in London, Brooke took active steps to seek out new works from the best composers in this genre. The continuing popularity of Piccinni's operas in London made a new work from this source a very attractive proposition, but she would have known, as a result of Burney's earlier approach on behalf of Hobart, that it was unlikely the composer would agree to make the journey to London. Paisiello's works were not yet known to London audiences, but his music had greatly impressed Burney during his Italian journey. After first hearing Le trame per amore in Naples in 1770, he wrote: ‘it was full of fire and fancy, the ritornels abounding in new passages, and the vocal parts in elegant and simple melodies, such as might be remembered and carried away after the first hearing, or be performed in private by a small band’. The strength of this recommendation from her knowledgeable adviser was enough to persuade Brooke to open negotiations with the composer, with a view to bringing him to the King's Theatre the season after next.

In any performance in Bellini's masterpiece, Norma's is the role that counts. Pollione ranks with Pinkerton among the most graceless tenors in the repertory; Adalgisa, whose exquisitely tender and passionate role was downgraded by Bellini in a seemingly definitive revision of the opera soon after its first publication, disappears entirely from the scene as the drama approaches its climax; and Oroveso's part is less imposingly monumental than it might have been, for Bellini trimmed it out of consideration for an artist in fragile health. None of this is to imply that these roles do not need musical and imaginative singing. But no other full-length opera in the repertory depends so heavily and mercilessly for its success on the prima donna.

Bellini composed Norma for Giuditta Pasta, the woman he once called an ‘encyclopaedic angel’ (letter of 28 April 1832). And that meant that the role was calculated to explore and challenge the voice, and to extend to its very limits the art, of the greatest singer of the age. The role has come to be seen as ‘the very acme of the soprano's repertory … more challenging than Brünnhilde or Isolde’ (Christiansen 1984, p. 66), ‘ten times as exacting as Leonore’ in Lilli Lehmann's judgement (Porter 1979, p. 154). Toscanini, who shared the widelyheld conviction that Norma was the masterpiece of the bel canto repertory, never performed the opera because, in Tullio Serafin's view, ‘he never found a soprano who could adequately realize the protagonist he had in mind’ (quoted in G. R. Marek, Toscanini, New York 1975, p. 63).

The purposes of this book are straightforward: to provide a biographical and cultural context for Bellini's Norma, to examine its artistic qualities, and to suggest something of the impression it has made on our imaginations and sensibilities in the 165 years since it was first produced in Milan in December 1831. From time to time I have felt entitled to open up my discussion a little to embrace Bellini's work more generally, particularly in presenting some of the critical reactions to his music. For Bellini's career was short; his reputation rests entirely upon his ten operas; and Norma, by common consent his finest achievement, represents his genius more comprehensively than is usually the case with any single work by an operatic composer.

I should perhaps make it clear that the book contains neither analysis nor theory as those terms are currently understood in academic circles. I was tempted (though to tell the truth not very tempted) to invite contributions in those modes. On reflection, however, it seemed that a unity and clarity to match the subject would best be achieved by writing the whole thing myself. Besides, while my indebtedness to other scholars is considerable and will be apparent to the reader, I found too many aspects of Norma interested me to wish to let them go. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are my own.

I am grateful to the University of Edinburgh and particularly to my colleagues in the Faculty of Music for enabling me to take a term's sabbatical leave in 1994.

Preliminaries

The years 1830 and 1831 marked the climax of Bellini's Italian career: the young Sicilian (he celebrated his thirtieth birthday in November 1831, little more than a month before the premiere of Norma) was already the most sought-after composer in Italy, evidently the heir to Rossini, quicker to find a distinctive voice than his slightly older contemporary Donizetti. He had arrived in Milan in April 1827 with an enviable reputation earned both at the Conservatorio and in the opera house in Naples; and in his new home, the centre of the Italian Romantic movement, he had confirmed that reputation with two operas, Il pirata (1827) and La straniera (1829), that were fast carrying his name over the whole civilized world. In the theatre poet Felice Romani he had found a friend and trusted collaborator who was to be his librettist for all the remaining operas he composed before leaving Italy in 1833.

Bellini spent the first months of 1830 in Venice, composing I Capuleti e i Montecchi and supervising its rehearsals and staging. Returning to Milan in April, exhausted and in wretched health, he found the city's theatrical life in a state of some turmoil.

At the time La Scala (and indeed La Fenice in Venice from which Bellini had just returned, so circumstances are unlikely to have taken him completely by surprise) was run by a group called ‘Giuseppe Crivelli e Compagni’.

An equal but different interest attaches to the variant readings in the first printed edition of Norma, a vocal score issued in the spring of 1832: NORMA / Tragedia liricadi F. Romani / posta in musicae dedicata / Al Signor / N. ZINGARELLI / dal suo allievo / V. BELLINI / Riduzione per Canto con acc.to di P. F. … NAPOLI – MILANO / TITO DI GIOVANNI RICORDI (plate nos. 3723–3736).

There can be no doubt that, except for the few minor errors it contains – missing accidentals etc. – this was the form in which, at the time, Bellini expected and wished for his opera to appear. Yet in several movements it differs fundamentally from the modern vocal score (plate no. 41684), the readings of which go back to Ricordi's second edition of Norma, ‘corrected in accordance with the last modifications carried out by the author’ (plate nos. 30981–30995) (Brauner 1976,p. 108). The purpose of the present chapter is to scrutinize those changes that affect the structure of the opera, and to argue that, in general, the original versions are superior.

No.5 Finale (Act I)

(a) Scenae Duetto (Norma, Adalgisa)

The original vocal score (plate no. 3729) published the cabaletta in a different form: between Norma's solo verse and what does service for the duet verse.Adalgisa too had a solo verse, essentially identical with Norma's solo, except for the text. There followed an entirely conventional linking passage: a bar of overlapping dialogue (performed three times), and two bars of cadenza a due, leading into the duet verse.

Chapter 1 will have shown that, in one sense, we know very little about the composition of the opera during the autumn months of 1831. In another sense, however, we know a great deal: the autograph score, including many sketches and cancelled sections of music, survives complete, as do many pages of drafts of Romani's libretto. The present chapter provides just a few examples of the kinds of matter that can be illuminated by this material. Space does not permit more than a sampling, and I have chosen to focus exclusively on the opening scene. First, however, it is necessary to describe these manuscript sources:

AL: The autograph manuscript of Romani's libretto, preserved in the library of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Written on paper of a variety of sizes and types, it is a fairly bewildering document, not always easily legible. It consists partly of drafts, partly of alternative versions, partly of fair copies of certain scenes. Some pages contain annotations and alternatives in Bellini's own hand. Plate 3 shows an example: p. 40 of AL, in which Bellini's emendations of Romani's text are added partly between the lines, partly in the margins.

A: Bellini's autograph score of the opera, preserved in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia in Rome. A facsimile reproduction of this manuscript, with a valuable introductory commentary by Professor Philip Gossett, was issued by Garland in their facsimile series Early Romantic Opera.

Bellini draws upon four earlier compositions for Norma. In chronological order they are:

1. Adelsone Salvini (1825)

The cabaletta of the Act I duet between Salvini and Bonifacio includes, towards its close, an animated new theme on the words ‘con questo mano il core saprò dal sen strappar’ (ex. AI). This was adapted and reworked in imitative form at a similar juncture in the Act II duet for Norma and Adalgisa, at the words ‘Teco del fato all' onte’ (VS 182).

2. Bianca e Fernando (second version, 1828)

This provided material for two movements:

(i) Bianca's aria di sortita has a cabaletta, ‘Contenta appien quest'alma’, which is reproduced almost in its entirety, though with its coloratura somewhat chastened, to serve as the cabaletta of Norma's sortita, ‘Ah! bello a me ritorna’ (VS 73).

(ii) The Act II chorus ‘Tutti siam’ provides the material for the Act II chorus in Norma, ‘Non partì?’ (VS 188). In this case the borrowing came via a third opera, Zaira, where the same material had been used for the chorus of French knights mourning the death of Lusignano, ‘Poni il fedel tuo martire’. Bellini's contemporary, Federico Ricci, was in no doubt that the movement reflected Bellini's familiarity with Beethoven's C# minor Sonata, Ope 27/2 (MS letter, Naples Conservatory Library).

3. ‘Bella Nice, che d'amore’, composed sometime between 1827 and 1829, and published as No.3 of Sei ariette per camera in 1829 by both Ricordi in Milan and Giraud in Naples, provides the material for that part of the Adalgisa/Pollione duet beginning ‘Sol promessa al Dio tu fosti’ (VS 96).