Agostino Ferrin

Oroveso, a Druid High Priest, gathers his people in a sacred forest and prays to their gods for help in vanquishing the Romans who have taken over Gaul. Unbeknownst to Oroveso, his daughter, Norma, a High Priestess, has for some time been the lover of Pollione, the leader of the Romans; she has, in fact, not only broken her sacred vow of chastity but has borne two children to the warrior. Norma uses her position to dissuade the Gauls from attacking the Romans, claiming that the gods have told her that the time is not favourable. Recorded at Théâtre Antique d'Orange, 1974

First off this is a live broadcast from 1966, Trieste. The picture is a nice black and white, and sound is in digital and DTS and is good. As for the cast, D'Angelo is very touching as Elvira, she is more of the stand and deliver singer of the old school, but that is not distracking for myself. She is a colortura soprano with a light sound, she was a student of Toti dal Monte and had a span at the MET from 1961 to 1968, where she shared productions with singers like Sutherland, Scotto, and Peters. If you like your belcanto with plenty of high notes (plenty of high d's and e's)you will enjoy her performance. Her mad scene (only slightly cut) is a high point in the performance as are all the scenes she's in. The rest of the cast is good and the Arturo Luciano Saldari sings well minus a high note or two. The main drawback here is the score is cut by over 40 mins. I am guessing that is was the tradition of the time. Overall a nice vintage performance.