This new production of Bellini’s Norma – Opera North’s first in over twenty years – continues our exploration of the bel canto repertoire which has also embraced Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in recent years.  Norma includes one of the most famous of soprano arias in ‘Casta Diva’, but this is by no means an isolated highlight in what is one of Bellini’s most rewarding scores.  Neither is the opera’s story merely a vehicle for Bellini’s exquisite melodies: it is a powerfully cogent drama, with, at its centre, one of opera’s most fascinatingly complex heroines, afflicted by conflicting impulses and emotions, but essentially noble and very human.   

Director Christopher Alden is a passionate believer in the dramatic potential of the work, and it’s a pleasure to welcome him back to the Company for this production, along with his experienced and talented design team of Charles Edwards and Sue Willmington.  There is an international flavour to the cast of Christopher’s production, and there are a number of significant Company debuts, including that of the Dutch soprano Annemarie Kremer in the title role, the Mexican tenor Luis Chapa as Pollione and American soprano Keri Alkema as Adalgisa. 

I’m delighted to welcome back to the Company Gweneth-Ann Jeffers as Clotilde, Daniel Norman as Flavio, and, as Oroveso, James Creswell, who made such a powerful impression as Fasolt in our performances of Das Rheingold last summer.  Bellini’s score is in the distinguished hands of maestro Oliver von Dohnányi.

This production is dedicated to the memory of an exceptional theatre artist, Gertrude Pfaffinger, who spent a lifetime in the theatre as an extraordinarily creative maker of props and costumes.  Sue Willmington, who has designed the costumes for this production of Norma, first worked with her in the 1970s and has paid tribute to Gertrude’s dedication to her craft and her inspirational example. 

Gertrude was also a great eccentric in the best possible sense of the term, and many Opera North singers and artists have stories to tell of staying with her in her house in Leeds.  She died in 2009, and in an act of quite extraordinary generosity, made a bequest to Opera North on the understanding that it would be used to mount a new production of Norma, dedicated to her memory and in homage to one of the great Normas of the past, Maria Callas.  This we do with affection and an enormous sense of gratitude.

Richard Mantle

General Director