Music: Norma

Heroine at the Metropolitan Opera last week was Rosa Ponselle. The revival of Norma had been announced and thereupon had followed much shaking of heads. Was not Norma 96 years old, relic of another age when song had been all-important and there were such phenomena as singers? Was not Norma the most exacting role ever set before a prima donna and had anyone ever done it justice since Lilli Lehmann last sang it at the Metropolitan in 1891?*

Heads wagged the other way after the performance for Rosa Ponselle had wrought the miracle. Not once had she flinched before the laciest coloratura passages, before measures that took her well into contralto regions, out again and up to the peak of the soprano scale. Her acting as the Druid priestess was less impressive; but critics found little fault, gave unqualified praise to her singing, to Conductor Tullio Serafin who found enough light and beauty in Bellini’s score to make it well worth the revival.

*There have been more recent performances. The Chicago Opera Company sant it in Manhattan in 1921. At that time Norma was vocally beyond Soprano Rosa Ralsa.