Never before had the taboos relating to female virginity been staged so explicitly as in Italian Romantic opera. Although condemned to ostracism in real life, in bel canto melodrama heroines stand up as transgressors, victims or practisers of pagan rites to simultaneously stimulate the public’s admiration, compassion and terror. The most tragic and demanding from a vocal point of view among them is Norma, opening at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan in 1831. Set during the Roman occupation of Gaul, it includes themes of motherhood, friendship and sisterhood, warmongering and religious fanaticism. Thanks to its legendary beauty and ethereality this combination renews the opera’s appeal generation after generation. Bellini breathed life into his melodies with an unusual dramatic weight which even inspired the admiration of Wagner, who, without doubt, used the embers from the immolation of Norma to light the pyre of Brünnhilde.