Programs · Episode

VERDI: Otello

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, June 17, 2017 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

Leave it to Verdi to take a classic tragedy by Shakespeare and, if anything, make it even more powerful and heartrending. The libretto is by Arrigo Boito, who also collaborated on another of Verdi's great Shakespeare operas, Falstaff. On At the Opera we'll explore the drama in recordings featuring some of the finest performers ever to sing the opera's complex leading roles, including Placido Domingo, Jon Vickers, Renata Tebaldi, Renata Scotto, Tito Gobbi and Sherrill Milnes.

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Herbert von Karajan, conductor
Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus
CAST: Mario del Monaco (Otello); Renata Tebaldi (Desdemona); Aldo Protti (Iago); Nello Romanato (Cassio); Athos Cesarini (Roderigo); Ana Raquel Satre (Emilia)
(LONDON 411618)

Tullio Serafin, conductor
Rome Opera Orchestra and Chorus
CAST: Jon Vickers (Otello); Leonie Rysanek (Desdemona); Tito Gobbi (Iago); Florindo Andreolli (Cassio); Mario Carlin (Roderigo); Myriam Pirazzini (Emilia)
(RCA 1969-2)

James Levine, conductor
National Philharmonic Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus
CAST: Placido Domingo (Otello); Renata Scotto (Desdemona); Sherrill Milnes (Iago); Frank Little (Casio); Paul Crook (Roderigo); Jean Kraft (Emilia)
(RCA 8883729722)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

At first glance, it seems that Giuseppe Verdi's Shakespeare-based operas would have plenty of company in the world's theaters — at least, there is plenty of reason to think so.

After all, any number of great composers have found success with music inspired by Shakespeare. Tchaikovsky did it twice, with his famous Fantasy Overture, "Romeo and Juliet," and an orchestral fantasia after The Tempest. Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream may be the most famous work he ever composed, and both Dvorak and Richard Strauss wrote dramatic, Shakespeare-inspired tone poems.

So, it would be natural to assume that we'd also hear an abundance of Shakespeare in the opera house. But it's not that easy. While programmers of orchestral concerts have lots of popular, Shakespeare-related music to choose from, that's not the case when it comes to opera.

To be sure, there is hardly a shortage of Shakespeare-based operas; there are hundreds of them. Yet somehow, Shakespeare's dramas have proven mysteriously difficult to set to music with any degree of lasting success. As a result, when it comes to Shakespeare operas that reliably draw eager crowds, there's just not much to choose from.

Of all the operas based on Shakespeare's works, only a few make regular appearances in today's theaters. Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet is one, along with Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The other obvious candidates are all by Verdi: Macbeth, Falstaff, and the great drama featured here this week: Otello.

Verdi's career was not only amazingly successful, but also remarkably long. He lived from 1813 until 1901, and his operas spanned a period of nearly six decades. Still, there were bumps in the road. When Verdi was in his 60's, he seemed to lose enthusiasm. He wasn't thrilled with the music of his younger colleagues, and for more than 10 years he didn't write a single, new opera.

Then two old friends approached him — publisher Giulio Ricordi and librettist Arrigo Boito. It had been almost 40 years since Verdi composed Macbeth, and the two suggested he might turn to Shakespeare again, with a setting of Othello.

Verdi took them up on it. Though he wrote only two more operas — the profound tragedy Otello and the wistful comedy Falstaff — both are rooted in Shakespeare, and they may just be the two finest Shakespeare-based operas ever composed.

On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone explores Verdi's Otello using three great recordings, starring some of the finest performers who have ever sung the opera's complex leading roles. We'll hear the drama's heartbreaking final act in a recording featuring tenor Placido Domingo, one of the 20th century's greatest Otellos. He made a number of Otello recordings, but perhaps none better than the first one, made in 1978 with soprano Renata Scotto as Desdemona. For highlights of the middle two acts, we'll hear a recording made at the Rome Opera in 1960, with Jon Vickers in the title role, Leonie Rysanek as Desdemona, and baritone Tito Gobbi as Iago. And for Act One, it's a recording from just one year later, with tenor Mario del Monaco and soprano Renata Tebaldi.

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