MISS DERMARK'S VERDIAN OTHELLO - TRAILER

#OthElokuu


THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO
A Dramma Lirico in Four Acts

Original Story by William Shakespeare
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Sandra Elena Dermark Bufí
June-August MMXVII

Dedicated to Ser Uttam Paudel,
an ardent admirer of opera
and classical literature.

And here's a little written trailer...

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OTHELLO (as he walks down the gangway):
We're victorious!!
The enemy's pride lies
fathoms below...
Ours are peace and glory!!

-----------------------

IAGO (to Roderigo): Now listen...
Though I pretend to love him, I hate Othello...
You want to know the reason? There he is, right there!
(Pointing at Cassio, who is flirting with Bianca and other women)
That frilly little stripling there wrested my rank from me;
usurped the rank that
is mine by right, and that I have deserved in many
hard-contested battles!
...
He chose that young lieutenant,
and I remain still on His Moorish Lordship's service...
as ensign.

--------------------------------------

IAGO:
Roderigo, drink up!!
(Reaching out a tankard to Cassio.) Here's your tankard, Ser Lieutenant...
CASSIO:
I've quenched my thirst.
IAGO:
Just down this only sip, Ser...
CASSIO:
No!
IAGO:
Look 'round! It's a night of celebration!
Everyone's going crazy! Therefore...
CASSIO:
Let go... I'm already lightheaded
from one glass, and our guard shift's soon!

------------------------------------

THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Ser Lieutenant, the changing of the guard awaits your orders.
CASSIO (reeling, staggering, trying to salute but facepalming instead):
Allons-y!!
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
What ever...?
IAGO:
That's the way every evening
he gets his liquid courage...
THE FORMER GOVERNOR:
Othello'll know it...
CASSIO:
The changing guard awaits me!
RODERIGO:
Ha-ha!
RANKERS:
Ha-ha!
CASSIO:
Who's laughing?
RODERIGO:
Can't you deny it?
CASSIO:
I will make you cry it, you scoundrel!!

------------------------------

OTHELLO:
Here's... fair Desdemona herself startled
from her sweet dreams by your dreadful uprising?
Cassio, never more be aide-de-camp of mine!
(He takes off Cassio's rank insignia and gives it to Iago)
IAGO (to himself):
As I expected!

--------------------------------

IAGO:
Do not despair; believe me, and you soon shall
return upon the lovely bosom
of Miss Bianca... my dapper young lieutenant
with golden sword-hilt on your left hip and baldrick.

CASSIO:
Flatter me no more!

IAGO:
Pay heed to what I'm saying!
You surely know that Desdemona
is our General's commanding officer...
He only lives for her sake.
Ask her yourself, that kind-hearted soul,
to intercede for your sake...
and you'll be soon forgiven!

----------------------------------

IAGO:
Nothing... You here? A whisper
right through my parted lips stole...
OTHELLO:
That young officer leaving
my lady's side... was Cassio?
IAGO:
Cassio? No, he's run off
guiltily from your presence...
OTHELLO:
I'm sure he was none other.
IAGO:
Now, Your Lordship...
OTHELLO:
What ever...?
IAGO:
Cassio... e'er since your courtship began,
was with your lady acquainted?

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OTHELLO (throwing the handkerchief on the ground):
I do not need this cloth...
DESDEMONA:
You are worried, my lord...
OTHELLO (harshly, irate, to Desdemona):
You leave me! You leave me!!

(Emilia swoops in and takes up the handkerchief from the ground, as husband and wife argue, not even noticing the maid claiming the cloth.)

---------------------------------------

IAGO:
So I'm not dreaded?!
EMILIA:
Are you a man?!
IAGO:
Am I?
(Iago has broken Emilia's right arm and seized the handkerchief, which he puts in his coat pocket.)
EMILIA:
Did you do...?!

IAGO (coldly):
Just what I can.

EMILIA (now with a broken voice):
Are you a man?!

--------------------------------

OTHELLO (suddenly staggering):
I shudder, weighing!!

IAGO (looking at Othello, to the audience):
My poison is effective...

OTHELLO (reeling):
Betraying broken me... broken me...
(He suddenly falls backwards and has a grand mal epileptic seizure.)

IAGO (sinister):
Writhe and suffer!!

-------------------------------

OTHELLO:
What proof?

IAGO:
You've surely seen it;
in Desdemona's hands, a fine silken kerchief,
strawberry and flower brocade?

OTHELLO:
Our ancestral handkerchief I gave to her
as my first token of love...

IAGO (gradually more and more sinister):
That silk, and this is for certain,
yesterday, I saw Cassio wipe his brow with...

OTHELLO:
Ah!! Nine lives are not enough that he'd be given!
Taking his only one's too easy striven!!
Iago, my heart is frozen.
Away from me, all mercy and compassion!
The shred of hope and love once found within me...
fades in... this fashion...
(Saying these words, he blows into his cupped hands.)
The green-eyed serpent's venom overcomes me!!
Ah! Bloodshed! Bloodshed!! BLOODSHED!!!

------------------

 OTHELLO, IAGO (unison; the former raising his right hand and the latter his left; locking hands and eyes):
I swear by the marble heavens,
by lightning in blazing flash,
by the beauty of our weapons,
by the darkness of the night,
and by the storm-waves' clash...
By the hate and rage that sear me,
that what this broken heart claims,
this hand will reach! So hear me!
May revenge them dash!!