One night, Amina, while walking in her sleep, enters the
chamber in the inn where Rodolfo, the young lord of the village, happens
to be located. There she is discovered by Lisa, the landlady, to the
scandal of the neighbourhood and the shame of her lover Elvino, who
casts her from him and at once makes over his affections to the
landlady. Amina's sorrow and despair make her more restless than ever,
and the following night she is seen walking out of a window of the mill
in which she lives, and crossing the stream by a frail bridge which
totters beneath her weight. Providence guards her steps, and she reaches
solid earth in safety, where Elvino is waiting to receive her, fully
convinced of her innocence. Bellini's music is quite the reverse of
dramatic, but the melodies throughout 'La Sonnambula' are graceful and
tender, and in the closing scene he rises to real pathos.
In 'Norma' Bellini had the advantage of treating a libretto of great
power and beauty, the work of the poet Romani, a tragedy which, both in
sentiment and diction, contrasts very strongly with the ungrammatical
balderdash which composers are so often called upon to set to music.
Norma, the high priestess of the Druids, forgetting her faith and the
traditions of her race, has secretly wedded Pollio, a Roman general, and
borne him two children. In spite of the sacrifices which she has made
for his sake, he proves faithless, and seduces Adalgisa, one of the
virgins of the temple, who has consented to abandon her people and her
country and to fly with him to Rome.
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