Interview, Marina Rebeka on Norma

Over the last decade the Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka has become one of today's leading interpreters of Bellini's Norma, and last month saw the release of a studio recording on her own label Prima Classic, using a new critical edition by Roger Parker which requires Rebeka to sing the Druid priestess's already enormously taxing opening aria 'Casta diva' a tone higher than usual (as per Bellini's original intentions).

I spoke to Marina last month about the additional and alternative material included in the new edition, some of the stagings which she's loved (and loathed!) since she debuted the role nearly ten years ago, the ethos behind Prima Classic, and how she's feeling about the imminent prospect of being La Scala's first Norma since Montserrat Caballé in 1977...

Tell me a little about the version of the score we’ll hear on this recording…

It was a big project, but such an exciting one. Because we were working from a new critical edition, we had to learn so much extra material. Our team at Prima Classic - me together with Maestro Fiore and my great colleagues - were creating variations and bombarding Roger Parker [the editor] with questions all the time!

The Act Two chorus 'Guerra, guerra!' has a different ending, and there’s a lot of extra material in Norma’s duets with Adalgisa and with Pollione – that’s why we have three CDs! We had a similar situation when we did La Vestale with Christophe Rousset: so many things were cut on older recordings because the singers thought the material was repeated too much. But that’s based on a misunderstanding of the performance-practice of the time. In the autograph manuscript for the end of Act One Norma just has two alternating notes, but of course in Bellini’s time the expectation would be that you’d ornament. Hence my additional top notes!

One of the reasons why we created Prima Classic is to seek perfection in every aspect of our projects, so being able to work with such an expert as Roger Parker was a luxury. The process was creative and interesting. For example - Roger’s new critical edition includes a version of the Act One finale with no chorus at all, so we had two options - but because the autograph manuscript does have chorus we decided to stick to that. All the extra material meant it was even harder to cast Pollione than usual: it’s always a difficult role, but adding in all those variations and the repeat of the cabaletta makes it near-impossible!

How did you approach casting for the project?

Pollione was written for quite a light, bright voice, but then Franco Corelli came along and spoiled everything! Yes, he sounds magnificent, but I think people have fallen into the trap of thinking that the role should be sung by that kind of tenor - it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. 

It’s a similar story with Adalgisa. People often associate the role with singers like Christa Ludwig and Fedora Barbieri, but that’s not the type of voice Bellini had in mind: his idea was that Norma is more mature than Adalgisa, so needs a lighter sound altogether. It’s now thought of as a mezzo role, and I think Karine is perfect: not only is she an outstanding musician, but she has the right vocal colour to honour Bellini’s intentions. 

You sing 'Casta diva' in G (rather than the usual F) as Bellini originally intended - how much of a difference does it make?

It’s a question of musical colour. 'Casta diva' is already very difficult in F, and it’s terrifying to sing because you know everybody’s thinking ‘How does she compare to Caballé or Sutherland?’. Perhaps I should have a shot of vodka beforehand, because in that second of silence after you finish you’re thinking: ‘Are they going to kill me now?!’ I’m singing it at La Scala next year, so it’s possible..! 

But the important thing to remember is that 'Casta diva' is a prayer - and we all pray in our own way, not like Sutherland or Caballé. Every evening it’s different, and whenever I sing it on stage I genuinely do pray – for peace, because that’s exactly what we need at this moment in our world. It’s always very real.

The autograph manuscript is at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, and when I was a student there I asked the director of the library if I could have a look at it. I was so surprised to see that 'Casta diva' was written in G; the story is that the original Norma wasn’t sure she could manage it in that key, but Bellini asked her to keep trying right up until the last minute and if it really wasn’t possible then he’d find a way round it. Eventually she said ‘Look, I’m sorry but it’s too high’ and he came up with the genius modulation which we have today.

I recorded the aria in F on my album Spirito in 2018, but the ornamentation is very different. I’m always developing as an artist, and I don’t want people to think ‘Oh, those are Rebeka’s ornaments!’. In Bellini’s day, being able to come up with creative ornamentation was a hallmark of being a great singer: it was just as important as having great technique and musicality. If you listen to the very earliest recordings of the opera, the singers take all sorts of liberties with 'Casta diva', to the extent that you can barely recognise the line! I didn’t take it that far, but I tried to find a middle ground.

So I have two versions on record now, and whoever comes to hear me live next May is going to hear the third version. But I think we’ll do it in F then – singing Norma at La Scala is already the experience of a lifetime, and that’s enough pressure on its own!

And of course 'Casta diva' is only the beginning..!   

Obviously 'Casta diva' is terrifying, but the first challenge is actually the recitative before that: it’s so dramatic, and it shows so many different sides of Norma in less than five minutes. She’s a warrior, a witch, a lover, a mother, a daughter, and a friend – such a rich, complex character. And in that first entrance we see her as the leader of a huge tribe, someone with supernatural powers: we feel her strength and self-possession, but also her weak points. Look how changeable she is: one moment she’s trying to calm things down, the next she’s angry and hungry for vengeance. 

But the real drama starts later, in the scene when we see her with her children and confiding in Clotilde about her doubts and fears. She hides that again when Adalgisa comes along, then we see her humility and big-heartedness in the small phrase in their duet where she says ‘OK, I cannot be happy, but I want this girl to be happy’. By the end of the act, the world is crashing around her and she responds with anger and desperation, but in the second act she finds the inner strength to rise above that. The first instinct for a woman is the maternal instinct, and in Norma it stands above everything: she cannot kill her children, and when she embraces death herself she asks first Adalgisa and then her father to take care of them. 

Do you find it challenging to feel much sympathy for Pollione?

It is difficult to play him sympathetically, because he thinks the best way of defending is attack - and the reason he’s always on the defensive is because he feels inferior to the woman he’s with. He says outright that he’s afraid of Norma in his very first scene: he knows this is a strong woman who can kill. I’m sure he found that extremely sexy and fascinating in the beginning, but the reality is that he can’t handle it; he’s like a man trying to tame a wild horse and failing.

It’s so predictable that he’s drawn to another woman who is younger and more naïve, and makes him feel like a real man again. Look how pathetic he is in the Act One finale when he has to tell Norma he’s leaving: he attacks their entire relationship and comes out with clichés like ‘My fate is to love this woman!’. (What else can he say: ‘Sorry I’m an idiot, I’ll be off now!’). And of course we see this same psychological drama play out all the time today: it’s not specific to Romans and Druids!

One of the things I find fascinating about Norma is its depiction of two different religions and cultures. On the one hand we have the ‘civilised’ Romans and their highly organised society; on the other we have this ‘barbaric’ tribe who worship nature and dress however they want…but ultimately we see that Norma is much wiser and stronger than the leader of the most ‘civilised’ Roman empire. It’s not a simple case of Romans = bad and Druids = good. It goes beyond that, but the contrast is so interesting.

What have you taken away from the various different productions you’ve sung in?

I like to come to a new production with my own ideas, drawn from the score and libretto, but inevitably some things do stay with you. Certain aspects of the Fura de Baus production were heavily criticised, but I found the staging of the first duet as Adalgisa making a confession fascinating - she and Norma are divided by the partition in the confessional-booth. And one thing from David McVicar’s production at the Met stuck with me: as Norma is getting ready to kill the children she takes herbs from a table and applies them to the knife so that there would be no pain: all through the music she’s preparing this elixir to spare them suffering. 

I’ve been quite open about my dislike of the horrible kitsch production I did in Hamburg just before the lockdowns, but one moment was really strong. There’s a scene where we see Norma putting poison into the warm milk she’s preparing for the children, which somehow feels even more disturbing than seeing her with a knife.

It’s hard to make Norma work in modern dress for several reasons. Firstly, we don’t really have witches nowadays, so how do you portray that kind of power in a contemporary staging? You could make her a doctor, but that doesn’t quite work either. And the fact that she’s a spiritual leader is also difficult, because so many religions are male-dominated: you have to suspend disbelief to buy the idea of Norma as a Catholic priest.

What’s the story behind the album-cover?

I did my own make-up, and it was actually a selfie I took for Médée! But the look works just as well for Norma: you look at the cover and immediately know that this is a wild warrior-woman. And we did three separate designs for each CD sleeve – our CDs are quite expensive, but we invest so much time in the complete package! The cover for the album is my face; the second image is a crazy forest at night; the third is the moon hanging in a very weird way, because she’s associated with Norma and Mother Nature, and the last one is the fire. 

If we’re putting out a recording as a physical product, it should be high-quality on every level. People sometimes come to have CDs signed after performances, so I think there’s still a market for them, apart from the opera collectors’ market, of course, which is very important for us. Streaming services are great, but they don’t offer everything, for example, some streaming services reduce the audio quality depending on different factors, and this is not always clear to the listener. Also, at Prima Classic we produce a beautiful PDF booklet for every release (which are available for free download from our website), and we wished the streaming services would easily offer them to their customers. 

All in all, we are very happy to have the liberty to produce and release this amazing project with the highest standards, an amazing cast, the wonderful orchestra and choir of Teatro Real Madrid, with the devoted attention and care of Maestro John Fiore and Mr. Roger Parker, and share this eternal music with the world!