Bellini’s Norma: Grand Opera, reduced –As part of the Explorathon festival (and Glasgow Doors Open), the Salonorchester will perform twice in the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow. 12 minutes arrangements of Vincenzo Bellini’s grand opera Norma will be played on Saturday, 21 September 2024, on the hour at 1pm and 2pm. Entry is free.
The Salonorchester (7 strings, flute, clarinet, trumpet, baritone, piano, accordion, percussion) will perform two different arranged versions of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma (first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831). As a full opera, Norma takes 4 hours 30 mins. The Salon arrangements reduce the opera to 12 minutes.
Arrangements of contemporary hits, such as a spectacular opera, symphony, dance or song, were created in the 19th century to spread music in an era when there was only live performance. No recordings, no radio. Music was only available in concerts, ball rooms, music halls, or drawing rooms (the Salon format). It is difficult now to imagine this world. Salon versions later were adjusted for early radio broadcasts. The Salonorchester performs from such editions held in the Dutch broadcasting archive, used frequently in the 1930s for early radio broadcasts.
The performances are a contribution by the CREATe Research Centre to the Explorathon Festival. Among the foundational questions of copyright law is: what is a work? what kind of control can an author or publisher exercise over what other people do with a work? Turning a whole opera into a catchy selection of its greatest hits, with different instruments and without singers, illustrates the tensions and historical developments in how abridgements, arrangements and cover versions are treated in law.
Arrangement 1: Grande Fantaisie La Norma by French composer and arranger Émile Tavan (1849-1929), published by Éditions Margueritat, Paris.
Arrangement 2: Fantasie über Motive aus Bellini’s Oper Norma, arranged by German/Austrian conductor and arranger Leopold Weninger (1879-1940) for the publisher Anton J. Benjamin (Hamburg – Leipzig – Milan), and licensed for Great Britain and Dominions to B. Feldman music publishers.
- Gabriel Doucet (violin)
- Shona MacLeod (violin)
- Gabriel Reinés March (violin)
- Martin Kretschmer (viola)
- Sam Ellis (viola)
- Rose Gallaway (cello)
- Lynette Eaton (double bass)
- Sophia Duncan (flute)
- Stephen Webster (clarinet)
- Sharon Kretschmer (trumpet)
- Bob Whitney (baritone)
- Mélia Simonot (accordion)
- Christopher Baxter (piano)
- Will Blackstone (percussion)
