You might not know it, but starting this Friday, October 26, through Sunday, November 4 is National Opera Week. Looking for a way to celebrate? Try seeing Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma,” presented by the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, at the Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC) this Sunday, October 28 at 3:00 p.m.
“Norma,” first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1831, is a really important (though kind of late) work of the bel canto era of opera. “Bel canto” is Italian for “beautiful singing,” and it refers to operas – especially Italian ones – written in the 18th and early 19th centuries that generally emphasized beauty and evenness of tone, long phrases and highly ornamental vocal passages (think vocal fireworks).
