![]() Tenor Rafael Davila as Pollione played well off of Brenda, with a haughty bearing befitting his character, and with a physical presence suggesting the couple’s conflicted relationship - now intimate, now distanced. ![]() In soft singing the voice had a plumy roundness, though when she pushed past a mezzo forte, especially in the higher ranges, it lost much of its variety of colors and took on an edge, like the flavor of a too-tart apple. ![]() Her swells were perfectly gauged, and passages such as the ending of “Casta Diva” - with its descending chromatic scale sung in effortless, spot-on pianissimo - were breathtaking. Though her voice is fairly large, it is agile enough to negotiate Bellini’s roulades, even if at times one feels too aware of the mechanics of the sound production. She was especially gripping in the scenes with Adalgisa, where the two characters played off of each other’s contrasting energies - Norma’s stately dignity versus Adalgisa’s ( Laura Vlasak Nolen) youthful impetuosity. She adopted an aptly imperious bearing in the ritual scenes, and fine pathos in the intimate moments. Her total immersion in the role was palpable, and provided her with a sort of inner fire that made this unlikely Druid priestess into a richly believable character. The Lyric’s Norma, Brenda Harris, brought her gifts to bear. Because so much rides on the bel canto, good singing is essential to success here. But his dramatic instincts were prodigious, and the sheer spun-out beauty of his melodies makes the experience ultimately worthwhile. Bellini can be taxing on the ear and the patience, partly because of his static harmonic language and the leisurely pace with which his sometimes numbingly strophic arias unfold.
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