Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Otello

A welcome revival of Harry Kupfer’s production
by
ABR Arts 21 February 2022

Otello

A welcome revival of Harry Kupfer’s production
by
ABR Arts 21 February 2022
Marco Vratogna as Iago and Yonghoon Lee as Otello in Opera Australia’s 2022 production of <em>Otello</em> at the Sydney Opera House (photograph by Prudence Upton)
Marco Vratogna as Iago and Yonghoon Lee as Otello in Opera Australia’s 2022 production of Otello at the Sydney Opera House (photograph by Prudence Upton)

Devotees of Giuseppe Verdi often suggest that the composer’s version of Shakespeare’s Othello is ‘greater’ than the original; a fruitless assertion, but indicative of the esteem in which Verdi’s penultimate opera is held. After Aida (1871), Verdi was enjoying the life of a gentleman farmer. Italian opera of the 1870s and 1880s, however, was facing something of a crisis, threatened by the relentless tide of ‘Wagnerism’, whose theories on opera were embraced by many Italians. Verdi, when asked about his own theory of theatre, drily replied: ‘My theory is that the theatre should be full’.

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.