The chorus repeatedly enters on one side of the stage, clumped together like bits of curdled milk, looking confused and disoriented, anything but battle ready.
Some of the staging gaffes are downright laughable.
The music is inspiring, but the narrative is unnecessarily muddy and dull. It is not enough, however, to make the production work as well as it ought.Īnd so it goes for three long hours, with passages of sublime singing interspersed with dull and pedestrian staging which fails to engage. The opening chorus, Ite sul colle, o Druidi, does not fare well dramatically as the Druid singers, presumably preparing for war against the Roman occupation, move and emote with such languidity and lack of purpose that they appear to be refugees from an Esther Williams movie, dancing under water.īut, when Sondra Radvanovsky as Norma launches into the prayerful Casta Diva, the singing blessedly takes over. The stage director’s primary directive - to tell the story - seems to have been completely ignored. As she stands and poses, two oddly costumed stage hands (surely we are not expected to believe they are druid priests) adjust pulleys and ropes to fly in a presumably sacred artifact of a tree with all the religious solemnity typical of working a fork lift. She seems more like a mannequin in a window display then a priestess about to prepare her people for war. She turns, strikes a new pose, and stands some more. The lengthy overture offers ample opportunity to introduce us to the action of the drama, but it is an opportunity missed.
Alas, the unfortunate staging pulls in quite the opposite direction. The musical production is magnificent, offering a spectacular rendition of Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece, pulling us towards opera heaven. This new production of “Norma”, directed by Kevin Newbury, reminded me of the mythical pushmi-pulyu of Dr. Dolittle fame, in that it appears to be an animal with two heads, struggling against each other to take matters in opposite directions. This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) ( Rating: **1/2) Christian Van Horn as Druid leader Oroveso, with the San Francisco Opera Chorus, in “Norma”.
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