Bellini's Norma

For Tom Volf, Norma is not a character from the past: a high priestess, an omnipotent tribal leader, the only one who can declare war or peace – and Bellini, two centuries earlier, wrote her as such. The opera unfolds around a chain of betrayals (Norma towards her wishes and her people, Adalgisa towards hers and towards Pollione, Pollione towards the two women), but the real subject, according to the director, is redemption. It is she who crosses all the characters and who brings catharsis to the viewer.

The scenic approach is radical in its sobriety, in an era where contemporary transpositions dominate. Tom Volf leaves the action in the first century BC as the libretto wants, and takes advantage of the ancient amphitheatre: druidic sanctuary marked by a large tree on the left, blocks of stone on the right, central space advanced towards the orchestra pit. The choir, placed statically, takes on the function of an ancient Greek choir. At the interlude of Act II, a threatening figure of death, accompanied by five dancers, crosses the stage; the same red fabric will be used for the call to war and then, at the end, to represent the pyre where Norma immolates herself – a way of avoiding a real fire on stage. Joyce El-Khoury's acting direction recalls that of Visconti at Callas in his Alceste at La Scala: no parasitic movement, a noble posture, the gesture alone, amplified by a dress whose fabric extends the arms.

The choice of El-Khoury is not a coincidence. Tom Volf had heard it in the French version of Poliuto by Donizetti, recorded for Opera Rara, a few months before the project Norma not be officially validated. The coherence of the lyrical timbre with what Bellini had written - originally, the creation by Giuditta Pasta then Giulia Grisi, two sopranos, at a time when the soprano/mezzo border was not drawn as today - naturally oriented towards this voice. Norma remains, in Callas' repertoire, the most performed role: she sang it 92 times on stage, more than any other opera. The production thus pays homage to the singer in the very place which had welcomed her eighty years earlier - to which is added, in Greek memory, the legendary Norma from Callas to Epidaurus in 1960.

Pour Tom Volf, mettre en scène à Hérode Atticus relève autant du privilège que de l’engagement personnel : « Il y a une énergie particulière dans ce lieu qui remonte loin en arrière, à tant d’artistes, tant de représentations qui s’y sont jouées — tout cela m’inspire profondément. »