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Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
October 6, 2005, Thursday
The soprano superwoman
By Mark Stryker
For an opera regarded as one of the peaks of the repertoire,
Vencenzo Bellini's "Norma," which opens Michigan Opera Theatre's
season this weekend, doesn't often make it to the stage. The reason
is simple: Norma -- the Druid priestess who breaks her vow of
chastity in an affair with the Roman pro-consul, the mortal enemy of
her people -- is possibly the most difficult role to cast in opera.
The vocal demands are immense, requiring a soprano who marries
Herculean strength and stamina with the usually contradictory agility
and control. Those qualities are all needed to sing Bellini's florid
coloratura lines, unusually expansive lyric melodies and floating
high notes . Dramatically, the singer must express the mercurial
depths of a woman who is part warrior, part politician, part lover,
part mother, part feminist and part Medea.
"If you can sing this role, you are truly blessed," says Armenian
soprano Hasmik Papian, who will alternate with American Brenda Harris
as Norma in MOT's production.
A failure at its 1831 premiere, "Norma" rallied quickly, earning a
reputation as the greatest dramatic masterpiece of the age of bel
canto -- literally "beautiful singing" -- defined by the
hyper-lyrical and fluidly melodic works of Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti
and Gioacchino Rossini. In Bellini, even more than his
contemporaries, melody becomes the key means to express drama and
character.
Like Hamlet, Lear or Stanley Kowalski, Norma has always been
associated with specific stars dating back to Guiditta Pasta, who
sang the premiere. Legends like Rosa Ponselle and Rosa Raisa were
associated with the role in the 1920s and '30s. Maria Callas reigned
supreme in the 1950s and early '60s, and for many her intensity still
defines the role. Joan Sutherland took another path, relying on
blissful vocal splendor in her 1960s and '70s performances.
In 1989, Sutherland sang the last Normas of her career for MOT in a
production that general director David DiChiera commissioned
expressly for her. The same production, designed by John Pascoe, is
being redeployed this time around.
After Sutherland and the slightly younger Montserrat Caballe, others
have stepped into the role, some successfully, some disastrously. But
in recent decades it seems like God stopped making Normas.
"Actually, it's not that God hasn't made Normas," says DiChiera.
"It's that God hasn't made superstars who are Normas. In America it's
not an opera that's reached the broad public like those by Puccini
and Verdi. 'Norma's' success from the box office perspective has
depended on superstars. People weren't necessarily going to see
'Norma' in the past. They were going to see Maria Callas or Joan
Sutherland."
For years, DiChiera has wanted to revive the opera, but every time he
traveled to Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles or elsewhere to hear a
soprano hyped as the next great Norma, he'd return home dejected.
Then he discovered Papian, who has made the role a specialty, earning
rapturous reviews in Washington, Montreal, Vienna and elsewhere --
and the endorsement of some aficionados as the Norma the opera world
has been waiting for.
Papian first sang the role for Polish National Opera in Warsaw in
1992. She was drafted as a last-minute substitute, five days before
opening night. Though she had previously studied the role, she did
not have it nearly up to performance standards when she impulsively
agreed to the offer.
"I said yes and then I realized, 'My God, what have I done?' " she
recalls.
The director of the production, fortuitously, was mezzo-soprano
Fedora Barbieri, who had sung the supporting role of Adalgisa to
Callas' Norma and was able to pass along a number of insider tips,
among them that she should sing the famous aria "Casta Diva" -- a
prayer to the moon for peace between Gaul and Rome -- with no
extraneous body movement. "It's a prayer. Everything is in the
voice," Papian says.
As difficult as Norma is, Papian says that singers cannot let the
challenge intimidate them. A steely confidence is required. The role
demands respect, but not fear.
Still, it can be daunting knowing that every time you step on stage
as Norma, the cognoscenti will be comparing your every move to
Callas, Sutherland the rest of the pantheon. All of which feeds into
mythology of the role.
Harris, who is singing just her third production of "Norma" for MOT
but has generated promising buzz, recalls a recent MOT rehearsal when
stage director Mario Corradi referred to a couple of Callas
recordings of "Norma" made a decade apart that differ greatly in
terms of detail. His point was that even the greatest artists keep
searching for new depths .
"I said, 'Look, if you're going to start throwing the C-word around
here, I'm going to leave the room,' " says Harris with a laugh.
Harris tries not to think about the inevitable Callas comparisons,
but she is aware of the lineage and responsibility.
"I think about it with regards to how awesome this music is and am I
doing it the best justice I can -- whether that's in the greatness
range or just my own greatness range," she says. "I'm someone else
with my own strengths and approach. But if I thought about it too
much, I couldn't do it."
October 6, 2005, Thursday
The soprano superwoman
By Mark Stryker
For an opera regarded as one of the peaks of the repertoire,
Vencenzo Bellini's "Norma," which opens Michigan Opera Theatre's
season this weekend, doesn't often make it to the stage. The reason
is simple: Norma -- the Druid priestess who breaks her vow of
chastity in an affair with the Roman pro-consul, the mortal enemy of
her people -- is possibly the most difficult role to cast in opera.
The vocal demands are immense, requiring a soprano who marries
Herculean strength and stamina with the usually contradictory agility
and control. Those qualities are all needed to sing Bellini's florid
coloratura lines, unusually expansive lyric melodies and floating
high notes . Dramatically, the singer must express the mercurial
depths of a woman who is part warrior, part politician, part lover,
part mother, part feminist and part Medea.
"If you can sing this role, you are truly blessed," says Armenian
soprano Hasmik Papian, who will alternate with American Brenda Harris
as Norma in MOT's production.
A failure at its 1831 premiere, "Norma" rallied quickly, earning a
reputation as the greatest dramatic masterpiece of the age of bel
canto -- literally "beautiful singing" -- defined by the
hyper-lyrical and fluidly melodic works of Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti
and Gioacchino Rossini. In Bellini, even more than his
contemporaries, melody becomes the key means to express drama and
character.
Like Hamlet, Lear or Stanley Kowalski, Norma has always been
associated with specific stars dating back to Guiditta Pasta, who
sang the premiere. Legends like Rosa Ponselle and Rosa Raisa were
associated with the role in the 1920s and '30s. Maria Callas reigned
supreme in the 1950s and early '60s, and for many her intensity still
defines the role. Joan Sutherland took another path, relying on
blissful vocal splendor in her 1960s and '70s performances.
In 1989, Sutherland sang the last Normas of her career for MOT in a
production that general director David DiChiera commissioned
expressly for her. The same production, designed by John Pascoe, is
being redeployed this time around.
After Sutherland and the slightly younger Montserrat Caballe, others
have stepped into the role, some successfully, some disastrously. But
in recent decades it seems like God stopped making Normas.
"Actually, it's not that God hasn't made Normas," says DiChiera.
"It's that God hasn't made superstars who are Normas. In America it's
not an opera that's reached the broad public like those by Puccini
and Verdi. 'Norma's' success from the box office perspective has
depended on superstars. People weren't necessarily going to see
'Norma' in the past. They were going to see Maria Callas or Joan
Sutherland."
For years, DiChiera has wanted to revive the opera, but every time he
traveled to Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles or elsewhere to hear a
soprano hyped as the next great Norma, he'd return home dejected.
Then he discovered Papian, who has made the role a specialty, earning
rapturous reviews in Washington, Montreal, Vienna and elsewhere --
and the endorsement of some aficionados as the Norma the opera world
has been waiting for.
Papian first sang the role for Polish National Opera in Warsaw in
1992. She was drafted as a last-minute substitute, five days before
opening night. Though she had previously studied the role, she did
not have it nearly up to performance standards when she impulsively
agreed to the offer.
"I said yes and then I realized, 'My God, what have I done?' " she
recalls.
The director of the production, fortuitously, was mezzo-soprano
Fedora Barbieri, who had sung the supporting role of Adalgisa to
Callas' Norma and was able to pass along a number of insider tips,
among them that she should sing the famous aria "Casta Diva" -- a
prayer to the moon for peace between Gaul and Rome -- with no
extraneous body movement. "It's a prayer. Everything is in the
voice," Papian says.
As difficult as Norma is, Papian says that singers cannot let the
challenge intimidate them. A steely confidence is required. The role
demands respect, but not fear.
Still, it can be daunting knowing that every time you step on stage
as Norma, the cognoscenti will be comparing your every move to
Callas, Sutherland the rest of the pantheon. All of which feeds into
mythology of the role.
Harris, who is singing just her third production of "Norma" for MOT
but has generated promising buzz, recalls a recent MOT rehearsal when
stage director Mario Corradi referred to a couple of Callas
recordings of "Norma" made a decade apart that differ greatly in
terms of detail. His point was that even the greatest artists keep
searching for new depths .
"I said, 'Look, if you're going to start throwing the C-word around
here, I'm going to leave the room,' " says Harris with a laugh.
Harris tries not to think about the inevitable Callas comparisons,
but she is aware of the lineage and responsibility.
"I think about it with regards to how awesome this music is and am I
doing it the best justice I can -- whether that's in the greatness
range or just my own greatness range," she says. "I'm someone else
with my own strengths and approach. But if I thought about it too
much, I couldn't do it."