About the production
Norma is a Gaulish druid priestess who is committed to the peace-bringing goddess of the moon and fertility.
She refuses to give the war-hungry Gauls the signal to revolt against Roman rule. She keeps the two children she has had in secret marriage to the Roman Pollione hidden from her compatriots. When her husband tries to cheat on her with a younger woman, her existence threatens to collapse. She overcomes the temptation to kill her children and punish her rival. Her self-disclosure saves their lives.
Norma
Storyline

Oroveso, the head of the Druids, obliges the Gauls not to take any action against the hated Roman foreign rule without divine approval. When the moon rises, his daughter, the priestess Norma, proclaims the divine will. The men call upon Irminsul, the god of war: May he give the signal to revolt.
Pollione, the Roman proconsul, secretly has a marriage-like relationship with Norma. They have two children. But Pollione has sneaked into the temple not to see his family, but for the sake of Adalgisa, a young priestess with whom he has fallen in love.
Norma appears before the people. She prophesies the downfall of Rome: "One day it will die, but not because of you. It will perish from its own vices." Her spiritual authority compels the Gauls to join in the prayer to the moon goddess with a plea for peace. She then dismisses the congregation. Once again, she has saved Pollione and her children from the danger of an uprising.

Pollione tells Adalgisa, who is beset by feelings of love and guilt, that he is returning to Rome. Adalgisa decides to follow him.
Norma reveals her fears to her confidante Clotilde about Pollione's estrangement from her. Adalgisa confesses to Norma that she has fallen in love. To her surprise, Norma releases her from her vows. But when it is revealed that her lover is the father of Norma's children, Adalgisa rejects Pollione as a liar. Norma curses him.

Norma believes she has to kill her children: with the Gauls, they are certain to die, with the Romans, slavery is "worse than death". She is unable to do so. She now asks Adalgisa to marry Pollione and take care of her two children as their stepmother. But Adalgisa succeeds in giving Norma, who is determined to commit suicide, hope again: she herself wants to persuade Pollione to return to her and the children.
Oroveso warns the Gauls who want to attack the Roman camp to exercise restraint, as Pollione is to be replaced by a much more brutal proconsul.

Clotilde brings Norma the news that Adalgisa's attempt at mediation has failed. Norma gives the signal that the Gauls have been waiting for: open revolt. Pollione is dragged in as a prisoner: he had tried to abduct Adalgisa, who had refused him. Norma makes Pollione a final offer in private: If he is willing to let go of Adalgisa, she will allow him to escape. But his cynical equanimity is only shaken by her threat to have Adalgisa executed in front of him.
Norma calls the people back. She has to denounce the treason of an oath-breaking priestess. But instead of denouncing Adalgisa, she answers the agitated questions about her identity with the words: "It's me." In the face of her self-sacrifice, Pollione professes his love for her again, but Norma leaves his request to forgive him unanswered. Norma confesses to her father Oroveso that she is a mother. Before she is burned at the stake, she manages to persuade the reluctant man to promise to protect her children from the fury of her people.
Vincenzo Bellini's Norma score includes not only the "infinite melody" of the high priestess's prayer to the moon goddess ("Casta diva"), not only the enchanting seduction song of the Roman proconsul Pollione ("Vieni a Roma...") or the two duets of the high priestess and novice, which savor all the magic of two soprano voices singing with and against each other. These icons of bel canto are embedded in a musical structure rich in contrasts. This leads from a passionately moving overture to the orchestrally evoked nocturnal atmospheric magic of the introduction to highly dramatic ensemble confrontations and furious choral numbers, which are always flanked by dramaturgically precisely calculated stage orchestral interventions. The maelstrom of the grand final climax at the end of Norma's plaintive plea to her father then brings all the voices together and transcends the action.
Bellini created his opera together with his preferred librettist, Felice Romani, who was admired for the elegance, melodiousness and pathos of his verses, and for the tragedienne Giuditta Pasta, who had set new standards in Rossini's seria roles: the acting soulfulness of her roles was considered unparalleled and her voice fascinated with its unprecedented modulation and expressiveness. The tragedy of the same name by Alexandre Soumet, which had recently been created in Paris, was chosen as the model for the new opera. In a letter, Bellini wrote to Pasta with the following words: "I hope that this subject will suit your taste: Romani considers it very effective and appropriate to your encyclopaedic character."