Music composed by Gioachino Rossini. Libretto by Francesco Berio di Salsa
after William Shakespeare’s play Othello, or The Moor of
Venice.
First Performance: 4 December 1816, Teatro del Fondo,
Naples.
| Prinicpal Roles: | |
| Otello, a Moor in the Serivce of Venice | Tenor |
| Desdemona, secretly married to Otello | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Iago, the pretended friend of Otello | Tenor |
| Emilia, confidant of Desdemona | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Elmiro, a Venetian patrician, the father of Desdemona and enemy of Otello |
Bass |
| Roderigo, the rejected lover of Desdemona and son of the Doge | Tenor |
| The Doge of Venice | Tenor |
| Lucio | Tenor |
| A Gondolier | Tenor |
Setting: Venice
Synopsis: The opera deviates quite heavily from
Shakespeare’s original, not only in that it takes place in Venice and not on
Cyprus, but also in that the whole dramatic conflict develops in a different
manner. A recent Opera Rara CD of the opera even includes an alternative happy
ending, a common practice with drama and opera at one time. The role of Jago is
reduced to some degree and is much less diabolical as in the original or in
Verdi’s 1887 version. Rossini’s Otello is an important milestone in the
development of opera as musical drama. It provided Giuseppe Verdi with a
benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare.
[Synopsis source: Wikipedia]
[Click here for a more complete synopsis (Italian).]
[Click
here for the complete libretto.]
image=http://www.operatoday.com/Maria_Malabran_by_Henri_Dec.gif
image_description=Henri Decaisne, Maria Malibran as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello (1831) Paris, MusÈe Carnavalet [Source: Wikimedia Commons]
audio=yes
first_audio_name=Gioachino Rossini: Otello
first_audio_link=http://www.operatoday.com/Otello_Rossini_1.m3u
product=yes
product_title=Gioachino Rossini: Otello
product_by=Otello: Michael Spyres; Elmiro: Ugo Guagliardo; Desdemona: Jessica Pratt; Rodrigo: Filippo Adami; Jago: Giorgio Trucco; Emilia: Geraldine Chauvet; Doge: Sean Spyres; Lucio: Hugo Colin; Gondoliere: Leonardo Cortellazzi. Philharmonic Choir Transsilvania Cluj. Virtuosi Brunensis. Antonino Fogliani, conductor. Live performance, Kurhaus Bad Wildbad, 19 July 2008.
product_id=Above: Maria Malibran as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello by Henri Decaisne (1831) Paris, MusÈe Carnavalet [Source: Wikimedia Commons]