[opera] Verdi's Otello, Sunday, October 10 at the Academy

[supercheesegirl]

Sunday was our first opera of the season: Verdi's Otello. Now, I will admit that I have never seen or read Shakespeare's Othello, so maybe I'm missing something. However, I kind of feel like an opera should tell me a satisfying story regardless of whether I'm familiar with the source material. This was... not our favorite opera by a longshot. The action focused on Iago, Otello, and Desdemona to the detriment of the other characters--Roderigo only showed up twice I think, and Cassio wasn't as interesting as everyone made him out to be. Desdemona just seemed like a moron--I mean, really, you mention Cassio and your husband gets a headache, you mention him again and he freaks out, you keep at it and he starts calling you a whore--come on, woman, get a clue! At one point Desdemona's like "Oh, CASSIO..." and the entire audience started to laugh. It was that ridiculous. And this is, and I quote from the program, "considered to be Verdi's greatest masterpiece"?

I need to get to bed, but overall: sets were absolutely gorgeous, singing was good, Iago was awesome (and actually reminded me of Carlos a little bit), but the writing was poor. We were not all about it.

Comments

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Well... I didn't enjoy the story, as told in this opera. Regarding the actual lyrics I can't say anything definitive because I was reading the quickie translation on the screen at the top of the stage. But I was not impressed by the story.

[igorxa.livejournal.com]

Boito did several libretti for Verdi, this being one of the greatest. As far as the story goes, it's his own interpretation, and subject to the director's interpretation as well. But I can't really say the stories of most operas are much better. Personally, the story isn't really the point. Turandot is ridiculous, Mozart's comic operas even more so, and many many more after you break them down to their essentials. There are only a handful that I can think of with stories strong enough to stand on their own. Maybe I Pagliacci, or Tosca? There's a lot of the same themes running through most of the tragic operas. Like I said, I don't really consider the story to be all that important.

[igorxa.livejournal.com]

Or better, Street Scene. I love the story/stories in that one. But I also have a boner for Kurt Weill.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I know the story isn't exactly the point, but I don't want to be distracted by it, you know? When we saw La Traviata last spring, I wasn't thinking, wow what a moron. I was able to get caught up in the drama of it. I cried at the end; it moved me. Same with Madama Butterfly. But with this I was left thinking what an idiot Desdemona was. The fact the half the audience also laughed at her--and during the crucial throne room scene, when Otello humiliates her in front of everyone--that seems to me to indicate that something about the performance isn't succeeding. Maybe it was the performers and not the writing, I don't know, but something wasn't right.