Norma, Coliseum, London, review: Bellini's classic remade as a brilliant parable of economic colonialism

Christopher Alden’s production updates things to an Amish enclave in nineteenth-century America

Jennifer Holloway, Marjorie Owens, Peter Auty, Adrian Dwyer and James Creswell in 'Norma' (Alastair Muir)

The heroine of Bellini’s great opera is priestess of a Gallic Druid cult, and her guilty secret is a clandestine family with Pollione, pro-consul of the occupying Romans; Adalgisa, a junior priestess, in currently enjoying a passionate affair with him.

Christopher Alden’s production updates things to an Amish enclave in nineteenth-century America, but by substituting speculators for the original Romans the he makes the story a parable of economic colonialism, with a peaceful community driven to violence when the innocence and purity of their world comes under threat.

Charles Edwards’ charming set is a meeting-house dominated by a vast tree-trunk which does symbolic service as the Druids’ sacred forest and as the pyre on which the repentant heroine and her lover die, and we readily believe in the reality of this little community.

After some misjudged moments early on, the direction develops massive power, with compelling performances from James Creswell and Jennifer Holloway as head-Druid Oroveso and Adalgisa respectively, Peter Auty as Pollione, and Marjorie Owens in the title role; Stephen Lord is a steady anchor in the pit. But the glory of this show – and the element on which the whole theatrical illusion depends - is the chorus: cut them at your peril, ENO.