Norma = Elza van den Heever
Pollione = Stefano La Colla
Adalgisa = Gaëlle Arquez
Oroveso = Robert Pomakov
Clotilde = Alison King *
Flavio = Ingyu Hwang
Antonino Fogliani, conductor
Oper Fankfurt's Chorus
Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester
Director - Christof Loy
Set Designer - Raimund Orfeo Voigt
Costume Designer - Ursula Renzenbrink
Lighting Designer - Olaf Winter
Chorus Master - Tilman Michael
Dramaturge - Konrad Kuhn
* Member of the Opera Studio
Frankfurt was a disappointmemt after Marseille. It was colder and the production was annoying.
Elza van den Heever was an amazing Norma, Gaelle Arquez also as Adalgisa, and so was Stefano La Colla as Pollione.
An amazing Norma except that the production was an distraction. Personregie was phenomenal, but the change of time, place and even how Norma and Pollione met (in the overture) made it hard to enjoy. The singing and acting would have made it the greatest Norma I have seen live and recorded but the scenography etc was annoying.
Elza van de Heever has everything in her voice and she can sing and jump on a table. Gaelle Arguez has a dark mezzo voice and it has great volume. Stefano La Colla was a full-voiced Pollione, a beautiful and mature tenor voice.
The director Christof Loy loves Norma and bel canto but he decided to make this about 2WW love between German officer and Netherlands partisans. The story he wanted to tell did not fit the libretto of Norma.
In Oslo I saw the best Norma and it seemed in the beginning that Frankfurt would use the same production. But some disagreement made the hastily get Christof Loy. DISAPPOINTMENT!!
This page was last updated: June 20, 2022
