Norma by Bellini, From (2024/2024), Directed by Alexander Niclasson, Conductor Michael Balke, Opera på Skäret, Kopparberg, Sweden

Here at Opera på Skäret, music composed by Vincenzo Bellini will be heard for the first time. With Bellini’s “Norma,” Opera på Skäret tackles a gripping portrayal of women with connections that feel relevant even in our time. Norma, rooted in the Italian bel canto tradition, is Vincenzo Bellini’s most performed opera. Like no other, Bellini, also known as the master of beautiful melodies, expresses emotions with such intensity and beauty. Norma is perhaps precisely for this reason an opera that offers several well-known arias, including “Casta Diva,” one of Maria Callas’s great showpieces. Norma had its world premiere in 1831 at La Scala opera house in Milan and has since been part of the repertoire of many major opera houses. This summer, it will be performed in one of the world’s most unique opera houses, a former sawmill located by the shore of a vast lake, now famous for its acoustics.