![]() ![]() More wayward decision-making from Pollione leads to his breaking into the temple only to be captured and offered up for a sacrifice. ![]() Norma decides that, after all, now would be a good time to start the revolution and whips the Gauls into a warlike frenzy – the Royal Opera Chorus in magnificent voice. After backing out of revenge-murdering their children – although resourceful enough to bring along PVC sheeting for the bodies – she agrees to Adalgisa's offer to help broker a reunion, only to be disappointed for the second time that evening. She needn't have bothered: her faithless Pollione is already tipping his helmet at another priestess of Gaul, Adalgisa.Īdalgisa seeking advice from Norma, (in this production of course it's a Catholic confessional) lets slip enough of Pollione's chat-up routines for Norma to guess that it's her turn to be betrayed. If this wasn't collaboration enough, she plays peacenik – stalling open revolt and saving her inamorato. Norma is a high priestess who falls in love with the Roman proconsul Pollione, bearing her people's oppressor two children for her pains. #Royal opera house review fullIn a coup de théâtre, a giant censer swings along to the opera's hit aria Casta Diva – sung here by Yoncheva in full priestly fig – upstage and down in the style of Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. The spectacular backdrop is an impenetrable wood of crucifixes and every bit of Romish paraphernalia you can and can't name makes it onto the stage – pointy conical caripotes are even worn by the children. Instead, he draws from his Spanish-Catholic roots and childhood memories of Franco, going for a timeless present: druids and warriors are now a fascist religious junta – no woad and face paint, rather sinister men in dark glasses and epaulettes. Originally set in an Ancient Gaul under Roman occupation, the Spanish-Catalan director Alex Ollé's new production avoids sword-and-sandals epic pitfalls. The Royal Opera's new season gets off to a flying start with the Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva impressing as Norma in Vincenzo Bellini's bel canto masterpiece. ![]()
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