Otello review: The Bard's magnificent Verdi makeover

The ENO have got their autumn season off to a wonderful start with this production of one of Verdi's most powerful operas. 

Turning the literary brilliance of Shakespeare into an opera is a challenging task, but Verdi's librettist Arrigo Boito was never shy at restructuring the bard's works. 

I believe he only read them in rather dubious Italian translations anyway, so the sacrifice of Shakespeare's language had already been done for him. In many ways, though, the opera is even more thrilling than Shakespeare's treatment. 

For a start, it skips the first act of the play and gets right into the meat of Iago's treachery and his vicious poisoning of Othello's love for Desdemona. 

This villainy is then given added power and urgency by the drama in the music. Most Verdi operas feature a glorious and enticing mix of brooding music and wonderfully tuneful arias; Otello stands out for its relative lack of great singalong tunes as the score concentrates of conveying and accentuating the emotional side of the story. 

With Edward Gardner conducting with his usual vigour and commitment, the orchestra really bring out the raw power of the music which is among Verdi's finest. 

With the orchestra belting out the music in such a manner, you need the singers to match, and Stuart Skelton in the title role leads the way magnificently. 

A huge man with an ever bigger voice, he gives a dominating performance as the troubled Moor. Leah Crocetto as Desdemona shows that she can match him for decibels, and with Jonathan Summers as a really villainous Iago, these three main characters produce the power this work demands. It all adds up to an Otello that grabs the audience's attention and keeps us gripped throughout.  

I found the costumes rather perplexing as they ranged through various styles and eras, but apart from that my only reservation was in the quality of the translation into English. 

This seemed to me to lack both dynamism and poetry, and all too often the emphasis of the words did not quite match the stresses of the music. But perhaps I am being unfair: when Shakespeare has been translated into Italian which is then set to music, it may be too much to hope for a translation back into English that perfectly fits the cadences of the score. 

Earlier this year, we heard of a considerable cut in the Arts Council grant to the ENO. On the evidence of this production, however, they should give it all back. Using dark, simple sets, the director David Alden lets the singers command the stage and the result is riveting. A great performance of a great opera. 

Otello runs until October 17, call 020 7845 9300 or visit eno.org for tickets.