I've posted about the divine Leyla Gencer before. I think she deserves another post, and this one will be all Norma!
Inorite! What could be better?!
While you're fanning yourselves I'll just start copying vids (OK, mostly photo montages with audio tracks, but what audio tracks!):
Casta diva, Losanna (Lausanne), 1966:
Oh no! It's truncated!
Well, let's move on to this, the ensuing cabaletta, the same performance (how odd that a photo from Albert Herring, which must have been simply amazing, is the one that displays):
O rimenbranza with Giulietta Simionato, La Scala, 1965:
In mia man alfin tu sei, La Scala, 1965, with Bruno Prevedi:
Norma requires a true diva of the sort we lack in the world today. A soprano who can handle the coloratura, high notes, and the really dramatic passages. And she must be able to show vulnerability as well as pride. We seem to have to choose one or the other nowadays. (I could go on and on about the homogenized tastes we seem to have nowadays, and about the insistence on wide-screen reality in casting that sacrifices vocal qualities, but that's another post. Actually, I should do a post about looksism gone awry in opera casting!)
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