Likeliness that the Pollione outfit would look better on Haller than on Puente (not his fault): 12/10.
In adjacent “Norma” mezzo news, Diana Haller sang a fabulous Adalgisa in yesterday’s opening of the new Hamburg staging by Yona Kim (which does, unsusal as it it, not look like a Xena episode, but might qualifiy as a Xena AU episode?) and we may all have to haul ourselves to Hamburg with a package of tissues in tow.
Queer Lorgnette 
I‘m still mesmerized! The extremely appealing timbre and super secure technique are one thing, but what really gets to you is the extraordinary intelligence and sensitivity she puts these into play with to transport emotion. And I think she is one of the singers who excel in finding and going with those universal emotions anyone can connect to, in whatever (from a modern perspective) unlikely situation the protagonists find themselves in.
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… Oh, and I was talking about Diana Haller, in case that didn’t get clear 😀 (Though Marina Rebeka was really, really good as well!)
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I’ll just be sitting here, nodding, passing the scotch and asking you to go on talking.
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Adalgisa steals Pollione’s coat before she and Norma ride off into the sunset…
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Excellent plot point.
>
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Maybe the coat would have opened Norma’s eyes (if she just hadn’t run off…).
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Running off is fine, but with whom?!
>
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She ran off alone after their duet unfortunately, too bad, that would have been the perfect moment to run off together, Adalgisa clearly wanted to!
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but that is already a step in the right direction. We may, in our lifetime, still see a Norma production that openly adresses Norma/Adalgisa as a romantic option.
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In fact, this staging did address the option, though only really on Adalgisa‘s part. Yona Kim reasons in the program book that Norma has a clear motif to rejoice in their reconciliation in the 2nd act since Adalgisa‘s renunciation is giving her new hope to win Pollione back. Adalgisa does not have such a motif but is nevertheless exuberantly happy on their reunion. Actually, Adlagisa was vehemently fighting to win back Norma‘s friendship back from the end of act one on, apparently not giving Pollione another thought. Thus it makes one wonder if she may in fact love Norma and not Pollione.
I wondered how such a drastic turn of affection may work psychologically since Adalgisa was clearly very much into Pollione in the beginning. In the confession scene of act 1 when Adalgisa tells her love story and Norma remembers her own story, the two of them seem to share an emotionally very intimate moment. Hard to say if they were close friends before, but maybe they have never talked on such a personal level and this is further strengthening their bond. When Adalgisa is confronted with Pollione‘s relationship with Norma, the main point for her seems to be that Norma has been hurt in such a bad way. She has only known Pollione for a short time and has a crush on him, but her relationship to Norma seems to be based on a much deeper level, causing her to shift all her love and loyalities towards Norma and to withdraw from Pollione emotionally.
(This theory was of course majorly inspired by the incredibly beautiful interpretation of that confession scene by both singers, it just doesn’t seem right that this would only contain them talking about the tenor 🙂 )
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I think that crush vs. longstanding loyalty/affeciton divide is something that could easily be seen as romantic, too. And that could also be construed as Adalgisa having a sudden epiphany.
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It was definitely displayed as romantic feelings on Adalgisa’s part, no mistake there! Sudden epiphany, yes, put it in the fanfic!
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Ups, typo, can you maybecorrect? ‘It’
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Freudian Typo?
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Hihi, maybe!
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…I amy have to see the show myself. For research. For that fanfic.
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You should! (I really hope they won’t have to cancel any performances)
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(Tenor, what tenor)
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In this case, no competition for Norma!
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Sorry, I am sure Puente was good and he sounded good on the radio. Just not my focus 😉
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Ah, another detail for the fanfic!
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*taking notes*
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Look at the proximity between Adalgisa and Norma, and also at Pollione’s pained expression as he realizes that he is about to hand over his coat.
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look, I am not saying they are about to hold hands, but… they might be.
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Which couple has a problem? Who is not part of that couple? #tenorwhattenor
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at this rate, the tenor does not even qualify as a problem any longer, he’s so far out of orbit there.
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