Vincenzo Bellini - Norma - 'Casta Diva'

#bellini #norma #mariacallas
Vincenzo Bellini with the Opera Norma reaches maximum success and enters the Olympus of the greatest composers of all time. Casta Diva is the cantabile of the cavatina of the protagonist in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. It is the most famous page composed by Bellini and among the operatic arias it is perhaps the best known. Her fame grew with the interpretation of the great Maria Callas. The French composer Fromental Halévy declared that he would trade all of his music for this aria. It is placed in number 4 of the score, the "scena e cavatina" by Norma, where it constitutes the cantabile section, after the recitative "Sediziose voci" and before the tempo di mezzo "Fine al rito; e il sacro bosco" and the cabaletta " Ah! beautiful to me returns". It constitutes a prayer that the Gallic priestess raises to the moon. Faced with the desire of the Galli to rebel against the Roman yoke, the priestess and seer Norma tries to appease souls since it is written in the sky that Rome will have to fall, but not at the moment nor by the hands of the Galli.
The text is the following:

"Casta Diva che inargenti
Queste sacre antiche piante,
A noi volgi il bel sembiante
Senza nube e senza vel.
Tempra o Diva,
Tempra tu de' cori ardenti,
Tempra ancor lo zelo audace,
Spargi in terra quella pace
Che regnar tu fai nel ciel."

#lyrics
#belcanto
#opera
#bellini
#orchestra
#callas
#castadiva
#aria
#composer
#composition

[New_Melomanka]

Casta Diva is a work of art created by one of the greatest composers and sung by one of the greatest singers! It made me cry. A real gift to anyone who listens!