ANDRÁS BATTA - VERDI'S OTHELLO

Othello

A Lyric Drama in Four Acts

Lyrics: Arrigo Boito, after Shakespeare's tragedy of the same title (1604-5)
Ur-Première: 5th of February 1887, Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Dramatis personae: Othello, a Moor, commander-in-chief and governor of Cyprus (T); Desdemona, Othello's wife (S); Iago, Othello's ensign (bar); Emilia, Desdemona's handmaid, married to Iago (mezzo); Cassio, lieutenant (T); Roderigo, a lordling (T); Ludovico, ambassador (B); the former governor of Cyprus, now a veteran officer (B); a herald (B); soldiers, sailors, noblemen and noblewomen, common people (chorus).
Time and Place: a seaport on Cyprus in the late 1490s.
 Plot Summary

Act I.
The town square outside the castle. The port, the local tavern. Due to a dreadful tempest, the Cypriots and the ones close to the troops are concerned about military commander Othello, on his way home after successful battles against the Turks. Othello's flagship sails unscathed into port, and everyone salutes the victorious hero with elation. But one man does not take part in the common rejoicing; the ensign Iago, feeling cast aside by Othello, who has promoted Cassio instead of him. So Iago plots revenge. As a tool for his intrigues, he chooses the lordling Roderigo, who is in love with Othello's wife Desdemona. Both Iago and Roderigo cajole Cassio into getting drunk and subsequently contrive to provoke the drunken lieutenant into a fight with Roderigo. When the former governor, and former officer on duty, tries to make peace between them, he is wounded by Cassio. Everything unfurls according to Iago's plans and Othello, made aware of the brawl, takes Cassio as responsible of the incident, demoting him. Desdemona soothes Othello's anger. And Othello is once more conscious of the threats to their loving relationship: the marriage between a stranger of uncertain descent and a noble young lady of rank. He fears the end of his happiness, while she feels no fears; only a love that knows no limits.




Act II. 
A castle hall with a view of the surrounding gardens. Iago consciously fulfils his intrigues; advising a desperate Cassio to ask Desdemona to intercede for him before Othello. Iago motivates his sinister revenge plans with the little slight that he allegedly has been insulted by. He is aware of his own power over human destinies, and he knows the weak point of the iron-willed Othello: his fear of losing Desdemona and her love. In presence of Othello, he presents the relationship between Desdemona and Cassio in such a doubtful light that the Moor understands Desdemona's slightest intercession for Cassio as a token of her infidelity. Iago snatches Desdemona's handkerchief, one that she once received as an engagement gift from Othello. And when the commander demands proof of his wife's infidelity, Iago claims to have seen the handkerchief in Cassio's hands. These lies provoke Othello to swear an oath to renounce to all happiness and to seek revenge.

Act III.
The Great Hall of the castle. As Desdemona asks Othello to pardon Cassio, he catches a glimpse of her and calls her a strumpet. Iago cajoles Cassio into speaking about his sweetheart Bianca, taking control of the conversation in such a way that an eavesdropping Othello cannot believe anything else than that the conversation revolves arounds Desdemona. When he then sees Cassio produce Desdemona's handkerchief, the commander is convinced of her infidelity and decides to kill her. Iago receives the mission to remove Cassio and, as a reward, promotion to aide. A legation arrives with the message that Othello, who has acquired too much power, is commanded to leave his position, and that Cassio is to be his successor. Othello's sanity has now completely slipped; he attacks his wife in public; thereafter, the great and powerful commander collapses physically and emotionally. Iago triumphs.

Act IV.
Desdemona's bedchamber. The young lady prepares for her decisive confrontation with Othello. She remembers an old love song, which reassures her, just as it has reassured many other females before. Then she says an evening prayer, a Hail Mary, and goes to bed, falling fast asleep. Othello enters the room and accuses Desdemona of having been unfaithful. She defends her own innocence, but Othello refuses to believe her words and kills her. Iago has convinced Roderigo to kill Cassio, but the attempt winds up an utter failure. Desdemona's handmaid Emilia reveals her husband's intrigues. Othello takes his own life, but ere he dies, he kisses Desdemona thrice, in order to seal their eternal love for once and for all.




Stage photo of Kallen Esperian as Desdemona and Kristian Johanssen as Othello; scenography by Josef Svoboda, costumes by Sázka Hejnova, conductor Christian Thielemann. Teatro Communale di Bologna, 1993.
It was Boito's most clever idea to abstain from the first act of Shakespeare's drama and rather display a victorious Othello at the top of his career and fame, in the middle of a tempest. The dramatism leads, as the show unfurls, on towards his violent downfall, which touches rock bottom after the murder of Desdemona.

Arrigo Boito (1842 - 1918)
The author and composer was behind the libretti of both Verdi's Othello and Falstaff (the latter from the Henriad and Merry Wives of Windsor).

Stage photo of Plácido Domingo as Othello. Conductor: Zubin Mehta, Vienna State Opera, 1987.
"I kiss you... I kiss you once more... Ah! die on the third kiss..." Through Othello's love-suicide and Liebestod, his love for Desdemona is immortalised.

Arrigo Boito
The son of an Italian miniaturist and a Polish countess in exile, he led in his youth a generally undisciplined lifestyle. For example, he duelled the Sicilian Giovanni Verga, a verista and the librettist to Cavalleria Rusticana, due to an argument about Rossini vs. Meyerbeer. One of the foremost Wagnerians in Italy, Boito composed at 26 the Faustian opera Mephistopheles (1868), with strong influences from Wagner.

Iago (Up Left)
Costume sketch for Iago, Alfredo Edel, Atelier Rico for Wiesbaden, 1898.
With this character, Verdi created a complete picture of Evil; a challenge that, when it comes to deep male voices, had followed all his creative productions ever since Wurm in Luise Miller. He dared to depict the destructive power of evil all the way down to its slightest consequences. And what is most terrifying is the fact that Iago appears to us in the shape of a common human person.

Iago (Up Right)
Renato Bruson as Iago, here singing the Drinking Song. Conductor: Zubin Mehta, Vienna State Opera, 1987.
"Iago is Envy. Iago is a villain. Iago is a critic. (...) He must look good and appear merry, honest, and almost well-intentioned. Everyone except his wife, who knows him well, take him for an honest man. If he had not had the charm of his pleasant looks and ostensible sincerity, he should not have been able to reach such power through deception as he has reached."
Arrigo Boito.

96. Drinking Song (Iago, Act I)

97. Iago's Creed (Act 2)




Iago
Ever since 1879, Verdi had devoted himself to the characterisation of the cast of his planned opera. Right from the start, he was the most interested in Iago's character.  "If I were an actor who had been cast as Iago, I would prefer a tall, slender physique with thin lips, small eyes near a long nose, like a proboscis monkey's ... In his (tillgjordhet?) he should be scatter-brained, indifferent to everyone and everything, (blaserad?), sceptical, cynical, condescending; a person who, with the same slight superficiality, gives expression of both good and evil," as Verdi wrote to his artist friend Dominico Morelli in 1881.
It is a speaking detail that the opera, during its genesis, carried for a long time the working title Iago. Not until 1876 did Verdi finally decide to choose Othello as the title. "It is true," he writes to Boito, "that Iago is a demon incarnate, the catalyst who triggers everything, but it is Othello who acts. He loves, he clings, he turns jealous, he kills and dies. In my own humble opinion, it would be hypocritical not to not call the opera Othello. I would rather hear people say of me 'he has measured his strength and been overcome, second to his opponent' than 'he tried to shield himself behind the title of Iago.'"
Iago's first solo number is the quick-paced and lively drinking song, which contains several unusual quirks and irregularities. The tone oscillates constantly between h-flat, D sharp, and A sharp, and the musical form itself is equally fluid. As Cassio is gradually more and more intoxicated and his thoughts turn gradually more and more (oredliga?), the musical form itself "gets drunk" and the verses of the song come in the "wrong" order. Iago's instrumental character attributes, chromatic slidings and ominous (drillar?), are constantly present throughout this song. The whole is presented as a kicked-up storm that leads up to chaos -- a chaos created by evil incarnate (96).
It was Boito's idea to add Iago's famous Creed -- a creed of mercilessness, nihilism, and evil will. But Iago's Creed was not created until early April of 1884, ie not until years after the ur-draft of the libretto was completed. Nowhere in Shakespeare's source material is there an exact precursor to this soliloquy. Verdi instantly reacted with enthusiasm to Boito's suggestion,

98. Othello's Entrance (Act I)

99. Othello's Farewell to Arms Aria (Act II)

100. Oath Duet (Othello and Iago, Act II Finale)

Othello (Left Page)
Costume sketch for Othello, Alfredo Edel, Atelier Rico for Wiesbaden, 1898.
This was Verdi's last title role for heroic tenor. "The likeness of a powerful and righteous warrior. Simple in manners and in attitudes, his commands carry weight, and his judgement full of self-control."
Arrigo Boito.

Othello (Right Page)
Plácido Domingo in the title role. Conductor: Zubin Mehta, Vienna State Opera, 1987.
Domingo, regarded as the greatest operatic Othello of the 1980s and 90s, without anyone second to him, even played the title role in Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film version of the opera. A highpoint in Domingo's stellar career was his portrayal of the Moor, which was admired throughout the world. Domingo sang the part with dazzling splendour, yet his portrayal was simultaneously finely crafted when it came to all the shades of the character. His prestation in performance can compete against the foremost thespians to portray Othello on the Shakespearean stage.



Othello
The Moor is the greatest and the most difficult of all tenor roles in Verdi's production, and maybe in eighteenth-century opera as a whole, only comparable to Tristan. Like Radames in Aida, his part is written for what is usually called a heroic or dramatic tenor.


101 - 102. Willow Song (Desdemona, Act IV)

Eucharist and Liebestod
In the finale of the opera, a solemn and almost ritual theme plays a key role. It is ominous and uncontrollable, a musical signal for the conclusion of the tragedy. This theme sounds like a flat variation on the Eucharist Theme in Wagner's Parsifal. Even if the Grail opera had its ur-première five years before Othello, there is nothing that hints at Verdi knowing of Wagner's "farewell to the world." The motivistic kinship can thus have been the product of sheer chance. However, it is not coincidental that this same motif also appears in Don Carlos. But Othello's last salute is not underpinned by sorrow, rather by love. Even in death, the Moor still loves his lifeless Desdemona.

High Ideals for the Part
"Desdemona's character, so virtuous and harmonious, must express strong feelings of love, purity, nobility, tenderness, credibility, and resignation. The more simple and demure her movements, the more she is going to move the audience, leading the adorable expression of beautiful youth to its completion."
Arrigo Boito.

Stage Sketch by Leo Pasetti, Bavarian State Opera, Munich 1931.
Desdemona shortly before her murder. In the fourth and final act of Othello, uxoricide and suicide fuse together into a dreadful ritual: it cannot be any other way.



Desdemona
In this opera, a particular light is shed on Desdemona:

103. Love Duet (Desdemona and Othello, Act I)

104. Love Motif or Kiss Motif (Act IV, Finale)

105. Othello's Farewell to Arms Aria (Act II)

106 - 107. Othello's Despair Soliloquy (Act III)

108. Fate Motif (Act IV, Finale)

109. Fate Motif from Don Carlos

Up Left
Stage photo; scenography by Josef Svoboda, costumes by Sázka Hejnova, conductor Christian Thielemann. Teatro Communale di Bologna, 1993.
Othello in the most demeaning situation in his entire career (the finale to Act the Third). Blinded by jealousy, he pins Desdemona to the ground. This leads to Verdi's last convulsing and tragic final ensemble piece.

Stage photo of Anna Tomova as Desdemona. Conductor: Zubin Mehta, Vienna State Opera, 1987.

Up Right
Mario del Monaco as Othello and Renata Tebaldi as Desdemona. Portrait from a biographical documentary about the tenor, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Cologne, 1966.






Othello - Desdemona
The love duet that closes Act One