Aviva Fortunata knew early on she wanted to be an opera singer.
“I was that kid in the auditorium, watching, thinking, ‘I would love to do that one day,'” she said.
That day has already come for the 22-year-old born-and-raised Calgarian.
Fortunata has been making a living as an opera singer, and next month will fulfill her childhood dream of singing on the Jubilee Auditorium stage in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma.
“A lot of friends from high school and junior high when they saw my name… on the internet and TV and stuff like that, they called me up or they Instagrammed me to say, ‘I can’t believe you’re actually doing it. You always said you were going to be an opera singer and you’re really doing it!'” Fortunata said.
Fortunata won’t just be singing in the Calgary Opera performance — she is the lead.
“It sounds like the role of Norma was written for her voice,” said co-star Annie Rosen, who plays Adalgisa. “She sounds so comfortable in it, and really, she’s generous onstage, she’s giving, she’s always right there in the moment, she’s great.”
The opera tells the story of two women, Norma and Adalgisa, who are both in love with the same man: Pollione, the father of Norma’s children and a Roman official.
“We basically, immediately unite together and decide that our friendship is more important than either of our relationships with this guy that’s turned out to be not so great,” explained Rosen, whose character is a virgin Druid priestess. “So I think that’s really cool and it’s expressed so beautifully in the music, in these duets that we get to sing.”
As profound and complex as the storyline is, the opera itself is just as deep and difficult to perform.
“There’s a really famous soprano in the ’80s who said that Norma was the Everest of operas, and you can see the mountain and you know the mountain’s there and you know you’re supposed to climb it. You just need to figure out how,” Fortunata said.
Norma conductor Alice Farnham said the subject matter and forces of the orchestra are monumental.
“It’s a big one. It’s not often performed actually, despite being one of the most famous operas in the repertoire,” she said.
Farnham said Norma is an enormous role.
“It’s incredibly difficult, incredibly delicate, incredibly strong,” she said. “She has to be so many different things and it’s a very long sing for her in particular.”
Fortunata will be onstage for the entire performance.
“I think Norma is a really difficult role… She has the emotional breadth of like a really great Meryl Streep role, so there’s so much to dig into with her emotions, the acting that it’s knowing how far you can go with that and still be able to sing,” Fortunata said.
Fortunata expects to have a full house packed with family and friends when Norma takes to the Jubilee stage Feb. 1, 5 and 7.
“Growing up, the Jubilee was the theatre that I saw the opera at, I saw every show at, and just to think of actually performing on that stage is like coming full circle,” she said.