Otello
One of the chief pleasures of this live production of Otello from the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden is Daniel Barenboim's conducting. From the opening gale-force blast of storm music, through the crunching and stabbing accompaniment of Iago's "Credo" to the shimmering strings of Desdemona's "Willow Song", he doesn't miss a trick. Everything works at the highest pitch of intensity and the orchestra sticks to his beat like glue. It's a necessary compensation for the shortcomings of the staging: the stolid chorus remains unperturbed by the storm and is directed to perform with unison movements; the acting (apart from Valeri Alexejev) is non-committal, and Alexandre Tarta's video direction somewhat flat-footed. She doesn't manage to make much small-screen sense of an impenetrably murky opening scene, for example, and doesn't seem fond of reaction shots.
Directed by Jürgen Flimm · Written by Arrigo Boito
Cast
- Christian Franz Otello (tenor)
-
Emily Magee Desdemona (soprano) -
Valeri Alexejev Iago (baritone) -
Stephan Rügamer Cassio (tenor) - Andreas Schmidt Roderigo (tenor)
-
Kwangchul Youn Lodovico (bass) - Gerd Wolf Montano (bass)
- Katharina Kammerloher Emilia (mezzo-soprano)
Make it a double feature
4h 6m together
Otello
Uns reicht das nicht
Both from Jürgen Flimm.
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