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Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Arrigo Boïto
Premiere: 5 February 1887, Milan (La Scala)
Language: Italian
Translation(s): English subtitles
Synopsis: https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/otello/synopsis/
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. The composer was reluctant to write anything new after the success of Aida in 1871, and he retreated into retirement. It took his Milan publisher Giulio Ricordi the next ten years, first to encourage the revision of Verdi's 1857 Simon Boccanegra by introducing Boito as librettist and then to begin the arduous process of persuading and cajoling Verdi to see Boito's completed libretto for Otello in July/August 1881. However, the process of writing the first drafts of the libretto and the years of their revision, with Verdi all along not promising anything, dragged on. It wasn't until 1884, five years after the first drafts of the libretto, that composition began, with most of the work finishing in late 1885. When it finally premiered in Milan on 5 February 1887, it proved to be a resounding success, and further stagings of Otello soon followed at leading theatres throughout Europe and America.
Herbert von Karajan directed this film of Verdi’s Shakespearean masterpiece as well as conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. As the tragic Moor of Venice, arguably his greatest role, Jon Vickers (in the words of critic David Cairns) "commands both the notes and the moral grandeur of the part...And he has the aura of greatness - greatness of heart, of bearing, of musical and dramatic conception." Mirella Freni is a heartbreakingly lovely and fragile Desdemona, while the fine English baritone Peter Glossop plays the villainous Jago.
Cast & Characters
Jon Vickers: Otello
Mirella Freni: Desdemona
Peter Glossop: Jago
Stefania Malagù: Emilia
Aldo Bottion: Cassio
Michel Sénéchal. Roderigo
Jose van Dam: Lodovico
Mario Macchi: Montano
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Chorus Master: Walter Hagen-Groll
Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Director and Artistic Supervision: Herbert von Karajan
Set Design and Costumes: Georges Wakhevitch
Director of Photography: Ernst Wild
Recorded in 1973
