ACT I
Relayed from the Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
NORMA is only rarely heard now, although in the first half of last century it was one of the favourites among Italian Operas. The principal part demands florid singing of a style which is but little cultivated now, and it is usually only on behalf of a distinguished Prima Donna that the work is revived.
The story deals with the old Druids, of whom
Norma is a High Priestess. The religion required strict chastity of her, but she had accepted one of the Roman soldiers as a lover, and has two children. Pollione, the Roman, has wavered in his affection for her, and is strongly attracted by a younger Priestess, Adalgisa, who finds it difficult to withstand his advances. She comes to Norma, asking to be released from her vows. Norma discovers who the would-be lover is, and tells the young Priestess of her own past sin; the first Act ends with Adalgisa's vowing to have nothing more to do with one who had betrayed her High Priestess.