Otello

Verdi was seventy- one when he wrote Otello. It is remarkable for some like Verdi who could have rested on his laurels to attempt new forms. He abandoned the strict closed forms (arias and duets with a proscribed beginning, a middle, and an end) turning instead to a more fluid uninterrupted dramatic flow. Of course he didn’t abandon the aria altogether for it appears in various forms throughout, the drinking song, the prayer, love duet, etc but they are blended into his newer more lyrical approach. This new creative energy provided us with two of Verdi’s masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff.

The new LA Opera production comes to us as a co-production with Opera de Monte-Carlo and Teatro Regio di Parma. It is directed by Glyndebourne alum John Cox and designed by Johan Engels. Engels places the action on board a ship with a curved stage floor that, I feel, doesn’t really serve the piece or the singers. The singers always have to watch their footing and balance. This leaves director Cox with not many choices.

The singing however was much more successful featuring English tenor Ian Storey as Otello, Chilean soprano Christina Gallardo-Domas as Desdemona, and the powerful Mark Delavan is Iago. Storey, fresh from a triumph as Tristan at La Scala, sings the leading role beautifully but doesn’t seem to have a lot of presence despite his height. He is out done by baritone Delavan who delivers a strong Iago, and a smashing Desdemona as sung by Gallardo-Domas. The beauty of her voice particularly struck me in the last act as she sang the prayer and the famous “Willow Song”.

Of particular interest to me was the way Verdi chooses to depart from the original Shakespeare. There is no Venice, no Doge, no irate father, but the opera starts in Cyprus and concentrates mainly on the love between Otello (Othello) and Desdemona. Desdemona has a scene, not in the Shakespeare, surrounded by other women and children, to emphasize her pure nature and innocence. Iago is given a definite motive in his being passed over in favor of Cassio for promotion. Also gone are the fits of epilepsy that the Elizabethans believed were a signs of greatness and gave the hero vulnerability. They are replaced by simple fainting or apoplexy. Perhaps it was too strenuous to ask a singer to writhe on the floor. Otello plays at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through March 9th.