Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – David McVicar’s conservative staging of Bellini’s NORMA returns to the Met with a merely adequate cast

• By drediman
• March 24, 2023
• No Comments

This past week, I made it back to the Metropolitan Opera to catch the revival of David McVicar’s 2017 staging of Bellini’s Norma. The primary reason to catch the production is to catch prima donna Sonya Yoncheva take on the fiery title role of the Bellini opera (tomorrow’s matinee is the final performance of this season’s run). The opera tells the “Medea”-like tale of a Druid priestess – the titular Norma – who turns vengeful when her Roman lover falls for a fellow priestess.

The production by McVicar – arguably the Met’s go-to director – is squarely conservative, which will please many purists. Although I don’t mind a piece of good old traditional theatrical storytelling at the opera, I find the staging, although painterly, to lack the kind of evocative atmosphere to effectively set the stage for the opera’s intensely dramatic events (I feel the same way about the Met’s current staging of Tosca, which was also helmed by the sought after Scottish director). As such, much of the responsibility to animate the whole affair falls squarely on the shoulders of the music-makers.

Unfortunately, the current cast is merely adequate, paling in comparison with the one that premiered the production in 2017 (Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role, Joyce DiDonato as her competitor!). Especially with Ms. Yoncheva out the evening I attended, the heightened passion of Bellini’s opera only very rarely took flight. As Norma, Australian soprano Helena Dix valiantly filled in but failed to muster the vocal firepower necessary for the role. As her shifty Roman lover, tenor Michael Spyres gave a vocally sturdy if hardly memorable dramatic performance.

The bel canto score was best represented by the superb performance by mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Norma’s lover. Her rich tone and detailed sense of character were some of the few saving graces of the evening. Also excellent was the propulsive playing of Bellini’s score by the mighty Met orchestra, as led by maestro Maurizio Benini in the pit.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

NORMA
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 15 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 25