Rating: 
Summary: pure perfection!!!
Review: Like Callas used to say: Only Caballé could do it
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!!
Review: Montserratt Caballe is a big and beautiful woman. Her performance in this production is stunning. Not only is the singing near perfect but her acting is utterly believable. I have NEVER seen anyone on stage who draws me into her drama as strongly as Caballe. She is calm and she means what she says. She does not have passion but she has purpose and that is what Norma needs.The other performers are great. It was a windy night and that adds an element of drama unexpected. This is really a great buy and it is an all-around fantastic evening in front of the TV.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!!
Review: Montserratt Caballe is a big and beautiful woman. Her performance in this production is stunning. Not only is the singing near perfect but her acting is utterly believable. I have NEVER seen anyone on stage who draws me into her drama as strongly as Caballe. She is calm and she means what she says. She does not have passion but she has purpose and that is what Norma needs. The other performers are great. It was a windy night and that adds an element of drama unexpected. This is really a great buy and it is an all-around fantastic evening in front of the TV.
Rating:
Summary: Caballe IS Norma
Review: Norma was the very first opera I fell in love with, hearing the unparallelled Sutherland/Horne pairing. On recordings, I have enjoyed Sills, Verrett, and sutherland, but something was always lacking. Inthis historic DVD, Caballe IS Norma. I had seen Caballe in Semiramide, paired with Horne in San Francisco, and was impressed at her coloratura, which I was unaware was so good. I have always thought of Caballe as the "plant me near a column, and I'll sing" type of singer. Her dramatic intensity in thids Norma was stunning - other reviews note the effecs of the wind on performance night - I just had the feeling that in the "Casta diva", I WAS in the sacred grove of the Druids. The other singers were very good, not earth-shaking; however, Jon Vickers' beautiful Wagnerian tenor is a bit un-Bellini here. I never saw Callas sing Norma, but I am sure she did not do much better dramatically, and certainly not vocally, as Caballe. Buy this recording - it is essential for the serious fan of Bellini. Larry Katz
Rating:
Summary: Well
Review: She never actually said it but the gesture with the earrings was clear. A gesture Caballe describes lovingly in a preface to a Callas-Bio. She said that Maria was the kindest friend and advisor she ever had. And as for the guy from the audience who won't even give his name: What good are "reviews" like that?
Rating:
Summary: Big opera, Big voices
Review: The principals of this opera sing their hearts out with total commitment, and abandon themselves totally to the emotional depths of the characters. What more could you want? Beauty of tone and accuracy of pitch? Well, they do that as well. This is in-your-face interpretation of a great opera, and the singers make a great case for the opera, forcing the viewer/listener to accept Norma on its own terms. In summary, the singing is gorgeous enough to melt the most detached listener. There are a few (albeit not very many) visual treats, primarily Montserrat Caballe gesticulating grandly with a relentless wind blowing the various veils and capes surrounding her into the wind with an extraordinary effect reminiscent of ancient paintings of mythic characters performing their great deeds with a mighty wind blowing through everything. Yes, the singing is great and it's too bad about the wind in the period microphones, but the performance is so magnificent that you don't care about the mediocre sound quality. Really. This performance, perhaps more than many others of various operas that I've experienced, truly defines that elusive and often too easily applied attribute of "classic historical performance". I really cannot imagine a Norma sung with more commitment and excitement. The intensity is almost unbearable. This is opera as concentrated passion. Don't miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: sublime Norma
Review: This is a wonderful Norma - Caballe is sublime in the title
role - she moves well on stage and her grand gestures suit
this great classical drama - vocally she is in superb form
coping with the taxing tessitura with remarquable ease -
from celestial high pianissimi to gutsy chest notes convey-
ing the tenderness and fury ot the role and the more praise
she deserves for this is attained in less than perfect con-
ditions - in an open antique roman theatre in Orange in the
south of France on a night when the notorious mistral was
blowing ferociously. The rest of the cast is good - Vickers
is an heroic Pollione - Veasey a sensitive Adalgisa and
Ferrin a solid Oroveso. The sound is inevitably not perfect
given the circumstances - there is some distortions - but
more than listenable. All in all a rousing evening at the
opera and a fine representation of Bellini's masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Important Opera DVD in Any Collection
Review: This is the legendary Caballé Norma, a live outdoor performance filmed in the Théâtre Antique Orange in Provence in 1974. Like Callas, Caballé's live performances frequently exceed her studio renditions of the same work. There are several recordings of her in this role. Generally, they are hit or miss but that night she got it absolutely perfect: a true goddess with a voice of an angel floating ethereally. She herself is said to regard it as her finest recorded performance. It is musically and dramatically thrilling. Caballé, who was later accused of being motionless and indifferent on stage, is at her most committed here.
Patané approaches the score as if it were early Verdi. His lead and the response of all on stage give this performance a majestic grandeur with a sustained rhythmic thrust. Vickers is at his prime here. He did not record the role anywhere else. The other soloists all stand out. The tension electrifies the entire performance. Even the mistral (a veritable windstorm) joins in a role of its own to magnify the dramatic effect. It was later imitated in other productions. There is no other Norma of this caliber. It is simply a miracle. The audio was recorded in one evening and combined with video filmed during several performances, with hardly any lip sync problems. The film has been available from a variety of sources over the years. This one is a significant improvement over previous VHS and LaserDisc versions. Three publishers currently issue it on DVD, Hardy Classics being the best, but only in PAL. It is the only PAL DVD that I am aware of that is offered for sale in North America by one on-line retailer. This reflects on Hardy's reputation, as well as on that of this performance. Amazon offers the new VAI issue, obviously in NTSC. Prior to this issue the only NTSC version was from the elusive Japanese Dreamlife company, for three times the price. The sound is in mono. I need to emphasize that there have been better audio versions available of the same event on CD. Opera fans that are familiar with them may have issues with the sound. The wind blowing into the microphones presented problems that different engineers solved with varying degrees of success. One should not expect a film that compares with the best of today's technical standards. Rather, it compares favorably with other historic performances. Despite the technical issues, it is in a category of its own. Many opera fans consider it the single most important video of a complete live performance available.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Important Opera DVD in Any Collection
Review: This is the legendary Caballé Norma, a live outdoor performance filmed in the Théâtre Antique Orange in Provence in 1974. Like Callas, Caballé's live performances frequently exceed her studio renditions of the same work. There are several recordings of her in this role. Generally, they are hit or miss but that night she got it absolutely perfect: a true goddess with a voice of an angel floating ethereally. She herself is said to regard it as her finest recorded performance. It is musically and dramatically thrilling. Caballé, who was later accused of being motionless and indifferent on stage, is at her most committed here.
Patané approaches the score as if it were early Verdi. His lead and the response of all on stage give this performance a majestic grandeur with a sustained rhythmic thrust. Vickers is at his prime here. He did not record the role anywhere else. The other soloists all stand out. The tension electrifies the entire performance. Even the mistral (a veritable windstorm) joins in a role of its own to magnify the dramatic effect. It was later imitated in other productions. There is no other Norma of this caliber. It is simply a miracle. The audio was recorded in one evening and combined with video filmed during several performances, with hardly any lip sync problems. The film has been available from a variety of sources over the years. This one is a significant improvement over previous VHS and LaserDisc versions. Three publishers currently issue it on DVD, Hardy Classics being the best, but only in PAL. It is the only PAL DVD that I am aware of that is offered for sale in North America by one on-line retailer. This reflects on Hardy's reputation, as well as on that of this performance. Amazon offers the new VAI issue, obviously in NTSC. Prior to this issue the only NTSC version was from the elusive Japanese Dreamlife company, for three times the price. The sound is in mono. I need to emphasize that there have been better audio versions available of the same event on CD. Opera fans that are familiar with them may have issues with the sound. The wind blowing into the microphones presented problems that different engineers solved with varying degrees of success. One should not expect a film that compares with the best of today's technical standards. Rather, it compares favorably with other historic performances. Despite the technical issues, it is in a category of its own. Many opera fans consider it the single most important video of a complete live performance available.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning Miracle!
Review: We are in eternal debt to VAI for their restoration of this live performance. I don't think we will live to hear this performance equalled never mind surpassed. We must be equally grateful to the sound engineers who preserved this classic performance for those not privileged to have been at the Theatre Antique d'Orange on July 20th 1974. According to one of the previous reviewers Caballe is supposed to have said that this was the best performance ot her career. We cannot argue with that. Stunning, dramatic vocalism with purity of tone and power to embrace it all, this Norma is immortal! Vickers and Veasey make it a wondrous team. Ferrin is not to be dismissed either. Too bad the video doesn't match the excellent mono sound which I find it difficult to belive is mono. It's hard to follow up on the previous reviewers. They've said it all. Every opera enthusiast must expereince this performance! Woudn't suprise me if some of the audience were still there applauding at the Theatre Antique d'Orange.
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