“The reasons were both subjective and objective. I didn’t want to organize just a formal premiere because everybody knows that the Armenian audience is very strict”, said the author of the film. It was very difficult to film this film-opera, plus it had a very small budget. However, this specific type of art, which includes Armenian opera stars, has already gained popularity. The famous Hollywood “Universal” Pictures has bought the license of showing the video-version of the “Norma”. “People all over the world argue about what’s more important in the film-opera – the music or the video; and how the opera and film are matched”, said B. Hayrapetyan. No one believed in the success of the film-opera in Russia, however, due to B. Hayrapetyan’s efforts “Norma” was filmed. “I have done both the stage and film-version of the “Norma” with an amateur’s assiduousness”, he said.
Furthermore, he asked to take out the staged performance (which he performed several years ago on the stage of the Opera of Yerevan) from the play-list, reasoning that the theater cannot possibly have a modern performance without a good play-list. “30% of the decorations are lost and it is just a waste of time to perform it. I agree that a country may not have a good cinema. It is not that terrible. However, it is a necessity to have a good opera. And this country used to have a good opera but now it’s gone”, added B. Hayrapetyan. He is looking forward to receiving feedback from Yerevan on the video-version of the “Norma”.