OTELLO (Rossini) Zurich 2012
In this video
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OTELLO by Gioachino Rossini
Opernhaus Zürich, Switzerland
2012
CAST
John Osborn – Otello
Cecilia Bartoli – Desdemona
Javier Camarena – Rodrigo
Edgardo Rocha – Iago
Liliana Nikiteanu – Emilia
Nicola Pamio – Doge
Ilker Arcayürek – Gondoliero
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Conductor: Muhai Tang
Orchestra La Scintilla
Chor des Opernhauses Zürich
Stage Director: Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier
Stage Designer: Cristiana Fenouillat
Costume Designer: Agostino Cavalca
Lighting Designer: Christophe Forey, Hans-Rudolf Kunz
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Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Berio di Salsa after William Shakespeare’s play Othello, or The Moor of Venice; it was premiered in Naples, Teatro del Fondo, 4 December 1816.
The plot of the libretto differs greatly from Shakespeare’s play in that it takes place wholly in Venice, not mainly on Cyprus, and the dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. The role of Iago is much less diabolical than Shakespeare’s play or Verdi’s 1887 opera Otello, which was also based on it. Shakespeare derived his play from the story Un Capitano Moro (“A Moorish Captain”) by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. In further contrast, the role of Roderigo, a sub-plot in Shakespeare and Verdi, is very prominent in Rossini’s version—some of the most difficult and brilliant music being assigned to the character Rodrigo. The roles of Otello, Iago, and Rodrigo are all composed for the tenor voice.
Rossini’s Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare. A 1999 Opera Rara CD of the opera includes an alternative happy ending, a common practice with drama and opera at that period of the 19th century
Synopsis
Place: Venice
Time: End of the 15th Century
According to the booklet of the performances of 1818 in Milan:[citation needed]
Otello, an African in the service of Adria (Venice), returns victorious from a battle against the Turks. He secretly weds Desdemona, daughter of his enemy Elmiro Patrizio Veneto, already promised to Rodrigo, son of the Doge. Jago, another lover rejected by Desdemona and secret enemy of Otello, in order to be revenged for wrongs done to him, pretends to favor the love-suit of Rodrigo. He intercepts a letter by the latter, with which he leads Otello to believe his wife unfaithful, which is the basis for the action, which ends with Otello stabbing Desdemona to death, and the death of Otello himself, after discovering the deceit of Jago and the innocence of his wife.
As in Verdi’s Otello, Desdemona’s aria “Salce” (“Willow Song”) is a pivotal moment in the final act.
Quoted from Wikipedia