Othello (Verdi)

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work data
Title: Othello
D31-Otello-loc70.jpg

Poster of an early performance in Parma

Shape: Opera in four acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto : Arrigo Boito
Literary template: Othello by William Shakespeare
Premiere: February 5, 1887
Place of the premiere: Milan , Teatro alla Scala
playing time: approx. 2 ¼ hours
Place and time of action: Port city on the island of Cyprus, late 15th century
persons
  • Otello, Mohr, Commander of the Venetian Fleet ( Tenor )
  • Jago, ensign ( baritone )
  • Cassio, captain (tenor)
  • Roderigo, a noble Venetian (tenor)
  • Lodovico, Envoy of the Republic of Venice ( bass )
  • Montano, Otello's predecessor in Cyprus (bass)
  • a herald (bass)
  • Desdemona, Otello's consort ( soprano )
  • Emilia, Iago's wife ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Soldiers and sailors of the Republic of Venice, noblemen and Venetian nobility, Cypriots of both sexes, Greek, Dalmatian and Albanian warriors, an innkeeper with four assistants, people ( chorus , extras)

Otello is an opera in four acts by the composer Giuseppe Verdi with a libretto by Arrigo Boito based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare . The premiere took place on February 5, 1887 at La Scala in Milan .

plot

first act

A square in front of the castle

The opera is set in Cyprus at the end of the 15th century. The general Otello, who is in the service of Venice, returns victorious from the Turkish war to his port city in a dangerous storm. Otello (Italian variant of Othello ) is referred to as Mohr and therefore comes from a foreign cultural area; one can therefore imagine him as a (“Muslim”) Moor , even if he was a dark-skinned African in many productions. His subordinates and the people, with the exception of Iago, receive him with jubilation. Iago is not well-disposed towards the Moor, since he feels ignored by Otello when Cassio was promoted to captain. Iago comes up with a revenge plan. The first thing he wants to do is eliminate Cassio. At a celebration of Otello's return, Jago gets Cassio drunk. Then he knows how to set Roderigo, who, like Cassio, adores Otello's wife Desdemona, on Cassio. Cassio draws his sword and, when the former governor Montano wants to settle the dispute, he injures him with his sword. Otello appears and is told what has happened. He then demotes Cassio. The people are sent home. Otello is alone with his Desdemona and both assure each other of their love.

second act

A ground floor hall in the castle

Jago hypocritically advises Cassio to try to get Desdemona to intercede for him with Otello. After Cassio leaves, Iago reveals himself in his Creed of Evil. Otello appears at exactly the right moment. Iago unobtrusively draws Otello's attention to Cassio, who is talking to Desdemona. When Desdemona then approaches Otello about Cassio's pardon, he rebuffs her harshly. When Desdemona asked the reason for his upset, Otello said something about a headache. Desdemona wants to tie a scarf around his head, but Otello throws it to the ground. Emilia, Desdemona's maid and wife of Iago, picks it up, but Iago takes it from her and puts it in his pocket. The women walk away confused. Jago immediately knows how to intrigue. He tells Otello that Cassio is talking about Desdemona in his sleep. Otello's mistrust is aroused. But he wants proof. Iago tells that he saw a white lace handkerchief at Cassio's, which Otello once gave to Desdemona. Then Otello swears revenge. Iago agrees.

third act

The main hall of the castle

Jago and Otello arrange to meet in the main hall of the castle. Then Desdemona appears. Otello feigns a headache and inconspicuously asks for the handkerchief. Desdemona assures him that she lost it. When she unsuspectingly asks for Cassio's intercession, he insults her as a whore and forces her out. Iago announces that Cassio is close and Otello hides. Jago cleverly engages Cassio in an ambiguous conversation that confirms Otello's suspicions. At the same time, Jago has secretly passed the lace handkerchief to Cassio, which Otello, mad with rage, then sees in Cassio's hands ("Il fazzoletto! Il fazzoletto!"). When Cassio has gone, Otello emerges from his hiding place. First he wants to poison his wife, but Jago advises him to strangle her in bed where she sinned. Then a delegation from Venice appears, telling Otello to embark for Venice immediately. Cassio, meanwhile, becomes his deputy. The name Cassio enrages Otello again. And again Desdemona steps forward and intercedes for Cassio. Otello throws Desdemona to the ground, and when the people want to protest against the madman, Otello chases him away. Then he collapses from exhaustion. Iago triumphs.

fourth act

Bedchamber of Desdemona

Desdemona prepares for bed rest. She dismisses Emilia, sings a sad song ("Canzone del salice", the song of the willow), prays and lies down. Then Othello appears. He turns off the light, kisses her three times. Desdemona awakens. He does not believe the protestations of their fidelity and love. Otello strangles her. Emilia storms into the chamber, sees Desdemona dying, and screams. Cassio, Ludovico and Jago rush over. Through Emilia's testimony and the last words of Roderigo, who was defeated in the fight against Cassio, reproduced by Montano, it suddenly becomes clear that Iago is responsible for everything. Iago flees. Otello approaches his murdered lover and before those around him can stop him, he plunges a dagger into his heart. As he dies, he remembers his love for Desdemona.

orchestration

The orchestral scoring of the opera includes the following instruments:

work history

Along with Falstaff , Otello is one of Verdi's late works.

Verdi was always looking for new librettists. He was struck by Arrigo Boito , who was a composer and librettist. Verdi was apparently present at the premiere of his opera Mefistofele on March 5, 1868 at La Scala in Milan. He found the work interesting, only the conducting bad. Boito's only completed opera , Mefistofele , combines the two parts of Goethe's Faust. Significantly, there is a relationship between Boito's Mefistofele text and his Otello , later written for Verdi . Like Jago in Otello , Mefistofele has a credo as a great naysayer. Boito was driven by the abyss, also in other opera texts such as in his libretto for Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda or in Otello . The opera Mefistofele , revised for Bologna in 1875 , is considered the central work of the phase between Verdi and Puccini.

On November 19, 1871, Boito attended the Lohengrin , the first performance of a Wagnerian opera in Italy , with his friend, fellow pupil Franco Faccio (composer and conductor) in Bologna . On the return journey, at 3 a.m., they met Verdi at the train station, who had also traveled incognito from Busseto to Bologna to secretly listen to Wagner's works. They talked. After Verdi's encounter with Boito and Faccio, Verdi wrote to his publisher Ricordi that everything he had experienced in Bologna annoyed him and that he did not want to be "lohengrinated". In the score of Lohengrin that Verdi took to Bologna, however, it said the opposite: "The music is beautiful!"

It would be a few more years before Verdi and Boito started working together. Verdi was busy composing the opera Aida , which premiered on December 24, 1871 in Cairo. After the premiere of Aida (1871) Verdi wrote no more operas. It is possible that the criticisms of Aida bothered him, damaging his glorious career at the end of his career as a composer. In 1878 Verdi wrote to Countess Maffei: "I would only hear again that I could not write and was a follower of Wagner. Beautiful Glory! To end up as an imitator after almost forty years of musical career.” In 1873 he composed another requiem for the death of his friend Alessandro Manzoni . After that, Verdi initially considered himself a pensioner. He expanded his estate at Sant'Agata, established the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti , a retirement home for ex-musicians in Milan, and was appointed Senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1874.

Arrigo Boito has since made a name for himself as a writer and composer. He had several commissions in the field of poetry and translation. In 1876 ​​he translated Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (Italian premiere June 2, 1888 in Bologna) and the Wesendonck-Lieder . He also managed the translation of Carl Maria von Weber 's Der Freischütz into Italian.

After this, there was a first collaboration between Verdi and Boito at the urging of Verdi's publisher Giulio Ricordi . Verdi agreed that Boito should revise the libretto to his 1857 opera Simon Boccanegra . Musicologist Roger Parker later speculated that this work was "an opportunity to test" before embarking on a larger project like Otello . In 1880/81 both worked on the new version by Simon Boccanegra, which premiered with great success in 1881. But already in the summer of 1879 Boito had sketched the libretto to Otello for Verdi , the first draft of which the composer received on November 18, 1879.

In November 1879, Giulio Ricordi sent Verdi a transcript of Arrigo Boito's opera text Otello , without Verdi having to undertake to set the work to music. Verdi was enthusiastic about the text. "From the first to the last page, it is a really well thought-out operatic drama." Verdi decided to write the composition spontaneously, without naming a date for its completion. In addition, it was not allowed to be known that he was working on an opera again. Verdi began composing in 1884. Arrigo Boito responded to all of Verdi's requests for changes. There were four versions of the fourth act before the Maestro was completely satisfied. The work was completed on November 1, 1886.

This is how Verdi created his most famous opera works at the age of 70.

On February 5, 1887, the world premiere of Otello took place at La Scala in Milan, conducted by Franco Faccio . Francesco Tamagno sang the title role of Otello, Romilda Pantaleoni as Desdemona and Victor Maurel as Iago. The performance was an indescribable triumph.

On January 31, 1888, the German premiere of Otello - in German - took place in Hamburg . On July 4, 1889, Otello was performed to great acclaim in London.

Francesco Tamagno as Otello at the premiere in 1887

Recordings (selection)

film adaptations

literature

  • Hans Kühner: Giuseppe Verdi in self-testimonies and pictorial documents (= Rowohlt's monographs. 64). Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1961, ISBN 3-499-50064-7 .
  • Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito: Othello. Opera in 4 acts (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 7727). Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-15-007727-3 , (opera text).
  • Opera and operetta guide (= cultural library of the classical music and theater library. Volume II). Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1986, ISBN 3-88199-297-9 .
  • Rolf Stemmle: Don Carlos - Othello - Falstaff. Giuseppe Verdi's great operas told in a catchy way. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8260-5274-3 .

web links

Commons : Otello  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ Otello on klassika.info
  2. ↑ Verdi's Otello in Ulm ( Memento of April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Text of a contribution by uni-ulm/uniradio
  3. ↑ Mauro, Maura: "Mauro, abitante della Mauretania". In: Nomi & Nomi. Edizioni Demetra, ISBN 88-440-3856-0 , ( books.google.com ).
  4. ↑ Michele Girardi: Otello. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 6: Works. Spontini-Zumsteeg. Piper, Munich/Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-492-02421-1 , p. 484.
  5. ↑ Life as an aria to hum along to
  6. ↑ Mary Jane Phillips-Matz: Puccini. A Biography. UPNE, 2002, ISBN 1-55553-530-5 , p. 33, ( books.google.com ).
  7. ↑ Wagner and Italy
  8. ↑ Premiere of "Otello" in the Big House.
  9. ↑ Manfred Brünnler: Otto Schenk stages Verdi's "Othello" on the rose hill. The greatest opera production to date . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 30, 1965, p. 9 ( The website of the Arbeiterzeitung is currently being redesigned. The linked pages are therefore not accessible. - Digital copy).