Act IV
Relayed from the Royal Opera
House,
Covent Garden
The first Act was relayed from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on Friday, June 7, so that listeners can no doubt remember who are the personages of the story.
Already in the first Act the final tragedy is clearly foreshadowed, and here it is worked out with inexorable force. The scene is a Druid Temple in the woods. Norma, the High Priestess who had been betrayed by the Roman soldier Pollione, learns from the young Priestess Adaigisa , on whom the Roman had also cast his eyes, that she has spurned him and is dedicating her life to religion. Norma strikes the brazen shield which summons the warriors, and war is declared against the invaders. But with the war chant there mingles a sound of tumult; a Roman has broken into tho Temple and has been captured. It is Pollione, who has tried to carry off: Adalgisa. The penalty ia death, but Norma, hoping to save him, offers to name another victim in his place-a foresworn virgin Priestess. ' Name her,' cry the people, and to their astonishment she pronounces her own name. Confiding her children to her father's care, she mounts the funeral pyre built for the intruder, but he, moved to penitence by her sacrifice, flings himself also into the flames, so that they may atone together for their past sin.