Otello

by Giuseppe Verdi

seen by live streaming from Covent Garden on 28 June 2017

Keith Warner directs Jonas Kaufmann as Otello, Maria Agresta as Desdemona and Marco Vratogna as Iago in a new production of Otello with Antonio Pappano conducting. This is Kaufmann's debut in the taxing role of the Moorish general in the Venetian state whose initial love for his wife Desdemona is poisoned by the ambitious and vengeful Iago, to the point where he smothers her.

The three leads gave strong musical performances, the contrasting characterisations of wifely innocence in the soprano, almost demonic vitriol in the bass, and descent from heroism to jealous rage in the tenor all persuasively handled. Kaufmann in particular charts the degeneration of Otello's character with great dramatic power, whereas acting skills are less in demand for the other two, whose personalities are necessarily less subject to change and development.

The production as a whole is visually constrained mainly to blacks and whites, though occasionally some colour is introduced through lighting effects. The set is a series of panels which usually look black, with some slits through which light may appear, and an opening in the centre which may give on to a white backdrop, but which often also gives on to a dark screen. Occasionally latticed screens give an added sense of the constriction of Otello's mind as he succumbs to Iago's suggestions that Desdemona is carrying on an affair with Cassio. While the men are invariably dressed dark, Desdemona is of course in pale lilacs and whites, and her bedroom in the final act is rather obviously white as well. Otello's suicide at the conclusion leaves a huge gory stain on the bed linen as he crawls despairingly across the bed to try to kiss his dead wife one last time. This is an effect which probably works better as a stage device than it does in the close-ups used in the cinema screening in which the copious amounts of fake blood threatened to be merely distracting.

Musically, quite apart from the excellence of the soloists, the evening was dramatic and suitably varied, the intense personal scenes being in contrast with large choral set pieces. Apparently 86 members of the chorus were on stage, which is a large number to handle meaningfully, even though the vocal power was used to tremendous effect in the opening storm scene and during the arrival of the Venetian ambassadors. Wisely, the chorus was basically static, pointing up the music by slow and uniform gestures. This throws the emphasis back on to the interactions of the three main characters - the scant attention which Shakespeare pays to the lesser concerns of Roderigo are even more stripped back here, and the play's opening scenes in Venice are (sensibly) completely missing in the opera.

Iago in this production is marked as the supreme manipulator, appearing even to conjure the opening storm while discarding a white 'comedy' mask in favour of a black 'tragedy' face. His credo aria was suitably demonic, and his energy particularly in the first half very compelling. In the second half we are more concerned with Otello's increasing instability and moral collapse, all clearly and at times disturbingly rendered by Kaufmann in fine form. The final catastrophe was preceded by the naive pathos of Desdemona's 'Willow' song and Ave Maria, but the murder and subsequent denouement brought all the focus back to Otello's disastrous fall.