Light of Hope

Several years after its debut in Stuttgart, an important production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma had its Italian premiere in Palermo's Teatro Massimo on 17 June 2014. The theatre was sold out; I was in the audience. Norma is an opera particularly loved by the Sicilian audience; only in Palermo, since 1831 there have been fifty different productions engaging major stage directors, conductors and singers. Norma is the quintessential of bel canto especially in the two duets between the protagonist and her younger colleague, Adalgisa...