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Triumphal Debut Parma
Teatro Regio
02/15/2026 - & February 17, 20, 22*, 2026
Vincenzo Bellini: Norma
Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Norma), Maria Laura Iacobellis (Adalgisa), Dmitry Korchak (Pollione), Carlo Lepore (Oroveso), Alessandra della Croce (Clotilde), Francesco Congiu (Flavio)
Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Martino Faggiani (Chorus Master), Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, Renato Palumbo (Conductor)
Nicola Berloffa (stage director), Andrea Belli (sets), Valeria Donata Bettella (costumes), Simone Bovis (lighting)
V. Berzhanskaya (© Roberto Ricci)
I became intrigued by Vasilisa Berzhanskaya six years ago after hearing her as Rosina in a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia in Florence, and was struck by her acting and singing. I wasn’t certain if I was hearing the standard version with a mezzo Rosina, or the less frequently performed soprano version. Berzhanskaya’s timbre was distinctly mezzo, but her dazzling coloratura and agility were more typically soprano. Two years later, the Russian singer changed my mind about a role I normally detest, that of Preziosilla in La forza del destino, the season opener at La Scala. Last August, the thirty-two-year-old gave a dazzling recital of soprano arias at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival (ROF), her dramatic way of announcing she was embarking on a soprano career. Despite this daring move, she continues to sing mezzo roles, such as Angelina in La Cenerentola, recently admired in Turin.
Astonishingly, Berzhanskaya chose to inaugurate her soprano career as Norma and in Parma. In doing so, she was without question making a bold statement, as Norma is the most demanding soprano role in the repertoire. The great Lilli Lehmann (1848‑1929) once said it was easier to sing all three Brünnhildes in one evening than one Norma. As for the venue, Parma’s public is known as Italy’s most demanding. Anecdotes abound of opera stars being booed – even showered with vegetables – at the city’s Teatro Regio. One can only conclude that the Russian singer doesn’t play it safe; she’ll either succeed in the most difficult role facing a notoriously discerning public, or she’ll fail. In the latter case, she’d swiftly abandon her soprano ambitions; in the former, she’d have fully earned her consecration.
Unsurprisingly, Berzhanskaya triumphed beyond my expectations. Norma requires a dramatic soprano with a firm coloratura and the ability to express emotions of tenderness, friendship, maternal love, jealousy, rage, self‑pity and despair. She had no difficulty with the coloratura of “Casta Diva,” the opera’s most famous aria. Thanks to her darker timbre, she easily conveyed the role’s required pathos, especially its pivotal finale. Berzhanskaya easily conjured motherly love in “Dormono entrambi... i miei figli”; friendship and altruism in Act II’s duet “Oh rimembranza” with Adalgisa; and jealousy and vindictiveness in “in mia man, alfin tu sei”. However, the opera’s most stirring moment was her final duet with Pollione, “moriamo insieme.”
In addition to her magnificent technique and heavenly timbre, Berzhanskaya is endowed with impeccable diction and exceptional acting skills. She was recently Adalgisa in Genova and at La Scala, great assets, as they would have allowed close observation of the opera’s title role. This explains her formidable Norma debut. Her emphasis on certain words, such as “Ei tornerà,” touchingly conveyed her paradoxically desperate hope for Pollione’s return. Equally heart‑wrenching was the moment she implored her father to care of her children. Her emphasis on the words “vittime, tuo sangue” and “abbi di lor pietà” were the most moving I’ve ever heard, in performance or on record. Most glorious was her “Son’io” when Norma confesses to being Pollione’s lover. This is the opera’s most “Callas‑associated” phrase in the opera. While Berzhanskaya’s “Son’io” was powerful, it was not an imitation of the legendary Greek singer.
In Bellini’s time, the distinction between soprano and mezzo was less pronounced than it is today. The creator of the role of Adalgisa, Giulia Grisi (1811‑1869), was a soprano, as was the creator of Norma, Giuditta Pasta (1797‑1865). Both also sang mezzo roles. Given Berzhanskaya’s timbre, the choice of a soprano Adalgisa was unsurprising. Heard in December as Elvira in I puritani in Cremona, lyric soprano Maria Laura Iacobellis was a splendid choice. Endowed with winning stage presence and an excellent bel canto technique, she was a convincing Adalgisa, brilliantly conveying the young ingénue priestess’s fragility and innocence in Act I’s “Sgombra è la sacra selva”. At age twenty‑four, Iacobellis was the winner of the 2018 Magda Olivero Voice Competition, which makes her thirty‑two, Berzhanskaya’s age. The two blended marvelously in the opera’s two famous duets, “Mira, o Norma” and “Oh, rimembranza.”
One of today’s most versatile, multi-talented tenors was this production’s Pollione. Russian tenor Dmitry Korchak has been long associated with Rossini and bel canto. Until a decade ago, his specialty was the murderous role of Arturo in I puritani, but in recent years, he’s taken on heavier roles. He was Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de perles in Barcelona; the Prince, in Rusalka, at La Scala; and most recently Lohengrin in Damiano Michieletto’s production for Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera. Last August, he made his conducting debut in L’Italiana in Algeri at Pesaro’s ROF. This versatile and highly intelligent singer is also a seasoned actor. Both Pollione and Adalgisa are foils, or faire‑valoir characters, whose primary functions are to make Norma stand out. Thus, Korchak, despite his portrayal of Pollione as a virile and imposing Roman general, made no attempt to steal the limelight. His Act I aria, “Meco all’altar di Venere”, was sung in a booming voice, yet stylishly. Despite the role’s excessive virility, he imparted the role with tenderness and even fragility in his Act II exchanges with Norma.
Bass Carlo Lepore is known as a specialist in opera buffa, especially in Rossini’s comic operas. Recently admired as Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola in Turin and Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Paris and in Pesaro, Lepore enjoys a natural comic verve in addition to a beautiful voice. His casting as Norma’s father Oroveso, a highly tragic role, came as a surprise. His portrayal was convincing and also moving, especially in the finale.
Renato Palumbo, recently admired conducting Manon Lescaut in Turin, proved his affinity for opera by adjusting the tempo to suit the singers’ needs. However, he occasionally overplayed Bellinian elegy by adopting excessively slow tempi.
I saw two other stagings by Italian director Nicola Berloffa: Donizetti’s French language Lucie de Lammermoor in Québec City and the rarely-performed La Wally in Lucca. Both were intelligent and faithful to the plot, with no extravagant subplots. This staging of Norma turned out to be one of the most appealing stagings I’ve ever seen. The action was transposed from Roman-occupied Gaul to nineteenth century Italy. Instead of being a druidess, Norma is the leader of a resistance movement against a foreign occupier. Given the similarity of the period costumes to those in Visconti’s emblematic film Senso (1954), one can surmise the setting is nineteenth century Italy and that the foreign occupiers are the Austrians. Berloffa’s transposition of epoch was a winning one, especially for an Italian public, thoroughly familiar with and fond of the Risorgimento, the period preceding the liberation and unification of Italy (1861‑1870).
Since the French Revolution, one may think of nationalism as the new religion in an increasingly secular Western Europe. In that light, Berloffa’s parallel makes sense. It’s also certain to move a modern Italian audience more than the original setting. Valeria Donata Bettella’s fetching costumes portrayed some in the resistance movement, including Norma’s father Oroveso, as decorated military men. This alludes to the country’s ancien régime trying to regain the power usurped by the foreign occupier. Andrea Belli’s sets were appealing, but less convincing. The basement of an abandoned palace was the resistance movement’s meeting place. This may be appropriate for clandestine political and military meetings, but less so for Adalgisa and Pollione’s tryst.
Act I opens to a clandestine meeting of the resistance movement and a funeral ceremony for a young fallen resistance fighter. The semi‑nude corpse of the young martyr is laid down and washed by four women, evoking Rubens’ Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1602) or Caracci’s Lamentation of Christ (1606), a powerful image, well‑entrenched into the subconscious of the average Italian opera goer. It may not be immediately recognized, but it effectively evokes pathos. Berloffa deftly transported a prayer assembly in ancient Gaul to a funeral ceremony in nineteenth century Italy. Moreover, the ritualisation of this scene gave pretext to the opera’s best known aria, “Casta Diva,” no longer a prayer to a pagan god but for the soul of a fallen hero.
In Act II, Pollione is captured and the crowd demands the identity of his lover. Once Norma reveals herself to be the traitor, she knows her fate is sealed but she also worries for her children. Berloffa makes this scene profound by having Clotilde dump the children in front of the hostile crowd. This clever idea explains Oroveso’s sudden change of heart. Instead of walking together into a pyre, Pollione and Norma meet their death in a less stylized manner: Oroveso slits Pollione’s throat and the crowd bludgeons Norma to death. This may be less operatic (and decidedly more gruesome), but it’s more believable in the context of nineteenth century revolutionaries.
Thanks to an excellent cast, especially Berzhanskaya’s incandescent Norma, and Berloffa’s intelligent staging, this was easily the best Norma I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a great many). As for Berzhanskaya, she won the bet. Judging from the prolonged applause, Teatro Regio’s public were captivated. Bravissima!
Ossama el Naggar
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