You need merely a voice the size of Texas, the vocal flexibility of a nightingale, and the stamina of a prize bull to tackle the title role of Bellini’s “Norma.” Not much to ask, then.Chapeau, and chapeau again, to American soprano Marjorie Owens, making her debut at National Opera as the spurned and matricidal Druid priestess. One minute she’s spinning out the long phrases of “Casta diva” with delicate elegance, and the next using her huge, powerful sound to ride like a juggernaut over the orchestra. If her coloratura technique doesn’t have quite the same wow-factor, she still creates headline-grabbing thrills in an insanely demanding role.Hats off too to mezzo Jennifer Holloway as Adalgisa, the young Druid votary who unwittingly becomes Norma’s love-rival. Luxurious voice, great top notes, a touching line in pathos... she has it all. The wonderfully boomy bass James Creswell (as Norma’s father Oroveso) displays a thrilling and authoritative gravitas, and tenor Peter Auty offers a pleasing turn – despite a few effortful high notes – as the Roman soldier Pollione who trades in Norma for Adalgisa. George Hall’s neat English translation of the libretto works a treat too.The rest of the production offers diminishing returns. Stephen Lord’s conducting is both slipshod and pedestrian (it’s a relief sometimes when Marjorie Owens drowns it out) and Christopher Alden’s stylized, expressionistic staging misses more targets than it hits. He sets the action in a nineteenth-century Amish-type community, with the occupying Romans of the original libretto here represented by top-hatted toffs in tails.It’s not a bad premise exactly, but Alden’s sledgehammer realization lets it down with a disappointing thud. It’s not enough that the gents are arrogant overlords; Alden shows them molesting young girls, terrifying women, swaggering drunkenly, being savagely boorish, and so on. If there were any sweet little fluffy kittens about, you just know they’d be ripping their heads off and cackling.Nuance? Shading? Something that relates to the more complex emotions of Bellini’s score? Not in the boo-hiss world of Christopher Alden.“Norma” is in repertoire at English National Opera until March 11
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