Bellini was commissioned to write a new opera seria for La Scala for the autumn of 1831. The impresario had hired a new tenor, Donzelli, and the soprano was to be an old friend, Giuditta Pasta. (In those days, the singers were usually hired before the composer, and operas were written with the strengths of specific singers in mind.) Since Donzelli was to be new for Bellini, the tenor wrote to the composer to tell him exactly his style of singing, his range, the character of his voice, etc.. Thus Bellini would know how to write for him. Pasta was a close friend and advisor to Bellini and often discussed projects with him and Romani. Although she was already famous, the new opera would mark her début at La Scala.
A new play, Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet, opened in Paris on April 16, 1831 at the Theátre de l'Odeón. Within a few weeks Romani and Bellini agreed it was just what they needed for the La Scala commission. Bellini wrote to Pasta: "Romani believes it will be very effective, and absolutely ideal for your encyclopedic character, because that is the kind of character Norma has". He asked her for suggestions. Then cholera broke out in Austria, and there was fear of it reaching Italy and closing the theatres. Bellini continued to work without much enthusiasm, but Norma was finally finished in early December. There were only minor problems with the Austrian censors, who only demanded the removal of the words 'Caesar' and 'enemy eagles' which were associated with the Habsburgs.
Rehearsals for the new tragedia lyrica started on December 5 and the Norma opened on December 16. Bellini had written a letter to Mercadante: "On Monday I shall start rehearsing my opera Norma....I have made my will in case they murder me". It proved to be prophetic. At first Pasta refused to sing Casta diva because it did not fit her voice. Bellini persuaded her to practice it, and she finally confessed she had been wrong. The original Oroveso, Negrini, had a heart problem, and a cabaletta had to be cut from an Act I aria so as to not overtax him. The La Scala impresario wanted Norma to sing a cabaletta from top of the funeral pyre which would be followed by an ensemble finale. He got neither. Romani defied the Italian opera conventions of the time and he proved to be correct.
All involved considered Norma to be a fine piece and were shocked by the chilly reaction of the opening night audience. There were even whistles, the equivalent of boos in Italy. Nobody took a curtain call, and Bellini pronounced it a fiasco. However, later audiences were much more receptive. It seems that supporters of Pacini's mistress, the Countess Giuilia Samoyloff were in the audience the first night and they did the whistling. Pacini's new opera Il corsaro, was to go on shortly and they did not want competition There were also supporters of a "powerful personage" who disliked Pasta. That person owned the journal which, of course, gave a very bad review. Norma was given thirty-four times during its first season at La Scala and has become one of the operas in the standard répertoire today. Pacini's opera is now forgotten. As a footnote, there were also two ballets given on the same evening, one during the intermission. Audiences did not mind long evenings.
Norma soon appeared all over Italy -- in Rome as La foresta d'Irminsul and within a few years all over Europe. In 1833 it reached Vienna and London where it was compressed into one act because it was part of a benefit performance which also included Act III of Rossini's Otello, Paganini playing his variations, the ballet Les Sylphides and several pas de deux! 1834 saw it in Madrid, Marseilles and Budapest and the next year in Prague, Paris and Barcelona. It reached The New World in 1836 with performances in Mexico City and Havana. Giulia Grisi who had sung Adalgisia at the première took over the role of Norma and made it her own. In 1845 the opera was produced at a children's theatre in Spain; an eleven-year-old sang Norma and all the roles were taken by children!
During an 1859 La Scala performance, there was an outcry against the occupying Austrian army. During the Guerra! Guerra!, the audience joined in. Somehow the reference to the Roman eagle had been reinserted and became the hated Austrian eagle to the Milanese.
Wagner conducted Norma in Riga and later described it as "richest in the profoundly realistic way in which true melody is united with intimate passion". Other contemporaries, including Bizet, Meyerbeer, Massenet, Brahms and Verdi heaped praise on it. Bellini himself considered it his masterpiece. When he was asked if he were shipwrecked, what he would try to save, he said, "I would leave all the rest and try to save Norma".