Now that we are finishing our long study of Shakespeare in opera, have a read of the sweeping Britannica article on the subject. It's an excellent review and synthesis of where we've been on this journey, from Purcell onwards.
And thus to Verdi. We met him last year and worked through many of his operas from each period. - see our web-page about him and our subsequent pages on the operas we studied.
Now, we visit Otello, from his final period. The opera exemplified Verdi's later stage of brilliant, dense drama driven by the music. the contrast with Rossini is extraordinary.
Here's Britannica's History and synopsis.
The role is famously described as a "voice killer" as well as demanding brilliant acting. Read Stuart Skelton's reflections in the Guardian on the opera and the role as he prepared to debut as Othello in the UK in 2014,
"You need a huge degree of stamina, to be equally comfortable at the top and bottom of your range, and you need to cut through some very heavy orchestration and ensembles, while retaining as much beauty of tone as possible. And then, from a dramatic point of view, you have to convince both as the military hero of Act I, and then as a vulnerable, volatile and ultimately broken man."
This version of Shakespeare's tragedy - produced in 1887, fully 76 years after Rossini's - reflects the great changes in Italian opera over that period. Verdi's has nothing you could call an aria - at least like Rossini's outpouring. Bel canto has disappeared as not suitable for carrying fast-paced intense drama and expressing personalities and inner thoughts and emotions. Instead we see a full development of Verdi's concept of "colour" - a sort of generalisation of Wagner's leitmotifs. Listen to the orchestra behind Desdemona, bright, happy, pure. Contrast with the orchestration for Iago; and note the changes in colour for Otello as he plunges from adored general to insane jealousy to his final collapse.
Our Production
We're viewing a Met production that was very significant to opera lovers - starring Placido Domingo who had made Otello his role for 25 years. See comments by FishFineMusic. Co-stars are Renee Fleming as Desdemona and James Morris as a brilliant Iago, under the baton of James Devine,
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