This release, featuring a famous Norma performed in Martina Franca in 1977 by Grace Bumbry and Lella Cuberli, inaugurates a new Dynamic mid-price series dedicated to famous operatic performances of the past, precious documents of the performing praxis and quality of a few decades ago. Rodolfo Celletti, who for many years was the artistic director of the Martina Franca Festival, proposed, in 1977, a Norma that was true to Vincenzo Bellini’s original idea. The role of Norma was composed for the famous singer Giuditta Pasta, who had a unique contralto-soprano voice. The character of Adalgisa was instead conceived for the lighter soprano Giulia Grisi, who had inspired Bellini to create Capuleti’s Giulietta. With Giuseppe Verdi the differences between soprano and mezzo-soprano became more distinct and marked. It became usual practice then to entrust the second soprano role, that is to say that of Adalgisa, to a mezzo, moulded on the examples of Azucena, Eboli, Preziosilla. This lead to a musical contradiction and a dramaturgical aberration: the virginal timbre of Adalgisa, indeed, was given to a vocal category that expresses sensuality, passion and transgression, like Dalila and Carmen. By entrusting Norma’s role to a real Falcon-like voice as is that of Grace Bumbry, and Adalgisa to the pure voice of a very young Lella Cuberli, in 1977 Rodolfo Celletti restored Bellini’s exact music idea.