Customer Reviews

Verdi: Otello

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film by Hebert von Karajan is the best rendition of Verdi's "Otello" available in any video format. The conducting and singing are superb and the drama is expressed with the utmost intensity. Jon Vickers is the best Otello in recent memory, superior even to Placido Domingo in vocal and dramatic power. Mirella Freni is a bit light-voiced for Desdemona, but she sings beautifully and looks like an angel. Peter Glossop sings the role of Iago with beauty and power, and sets just the right tone of evil playfulness. Picture and sound quality are both just fine. The supporting cast is wonderful, too, and includes Jose van Dam (Lodovico) and Michel Senechal (Roderigo).

Karajan's cinematography is not as polished as Zeffirelli's, but it does present the essentials of the drama honestly and straightforwardly. The Zeffirelli film, although it has an excellent cast and looks beautiful, is an abomination. Starting with a perfectly good soundtrack, Zeffirelli proceeded to destroy Verdi's dramatic and musical conception by cutting out little snippets of the score (seemingly almost at random) to bring his movie to a length of less than two hours. As far as I know, his film has never been issued on DVD. I hope nobody bothers with it. Karajan's film is more stagebound and the lip synch isn't perfect, but his version is complete and dramatically compelling.

There are two other good renditions of this opera on DVD: a London (Royal Opera) performance with Placido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Sergei Leiferkus and a 1958 RAI telecast with Mario del Monaco, Rosanna Carteri, and Renato Capecchi, conducted by Tullio Serafin. The London performance is beautifully played and sung, but it's dramatically less intense than Karajan's film. The Italian telecast is a wonderful historical document, but it is better to hear than it is to see. The monaural sound is good and the black and white picture is clear enough, but the singers don't always appear comfortable lip-synching to a prerecorded sound track. Nevertheless, I recommend that you get it for the remarkable performances of del Monaco and Capecchi. But if you're looking for the one best "Otello" video, Karajan's is it.

I bought the disc for two reasons: first, that I had the pleasure of seeing Vickers in this role at Covent Garden in the early 1980s (a memory I would not trade for worlds); and second, that I'm always on the lookout for operas filmed cinematically rather than just taped stage productions. Vickers is every bit as powerful, vocally and otherwise, in this production as he was on stage, besides being paired with a superb Desdemona in Mirella Freni. The sound is luscious, though perhaps the dynamic range is too broad. As for the staging, it is a bit "stagey" despite the liberation of the camera from the proscenium view; even the storm lashing the beach looks suspiciously like buckets of water being tossed onto the stage. But what we have here is an honest attempt to present the opera as an opera rather than as a movie in the Zeffirelli style. The burden of the performance is on the performers, not on the cinematographers, and they carry it creditably. The picture quality is excellent. Overall the disc is a wonderful record of one of the great roles in operatic history: Vickers as Otello.

Verdi's Otello is the finest tragic opera ever written. The genial poet Boito wrote a beautifully compressed libretto that inspired Verdi to compose intensely dramatic, dynamic and complex music for great arias, duets and choral singing. Otello' s triumph over the Turks "Esultate!", the sweet and ethereal duet between Otello and his bride Desdemona "Già nella notte densa", Jago's cynical view on life "Credo in un Dio crudel", the revengeful oath-taking duet "Sì, pel Ciel marmoreo giuro!", Otello's regret for lost happiness "Dio, mi potevi scagliare", the andante then frenetic pezzo concertato of acclaims "Viva! Evviva!" (Venetian dignitaries, heralds, soldiers, Ladies and Gentlemen) ingrained with brooding soliloquies and utterances "...Emilia, una gran nube turba il senno d"Otello..." (Lodovico, Otello, Desdemona, Emilia, Jago), Desdemona's soulful prayer "Ave Maria", Otello's dishevelled suicide "Niun mi tema" and last heroic whisper "un altro bacio", the opera ending with two soft but solemn orchestral bars.

On 5 February 1887 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milano, Verdi staged the world premiere of Otello after 16 years of silence. During that period, he reflected for a long time on his experience and the musical evolution of opera. He felt he had to conceive successfully something new to stay abreast of times. Otello was born. Boito became a decisive collaborator. He wrote the libretto "a struttura continua" which allowed the great master to break the old scheme of arias, duets, recitatives and develop a completely continuous discourse.

Jon Vickers - The great Canadian tenor was born in 1926 at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. After studying under George Lampert in Toronto, he made his debut in 1954 as the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. During an illustrious career spanning over 28 years, he sang a variety of roles excelling in Beethoven's Fidelio as Florestan, the Wagnerians Siegmund, Parsifal and Tristan, the Italians Canio and Otello, the French Don José and the English Peter Grimes, in most of the major theatres of the world. His debut as Otello dates back to 1970 during the Salzburg Festival where he sang the role for the ensuing two years.

In this 1974 rendition of Otello, one senses Vickers' mastery of the role and profound identification with the character throughout. When called upon to put on show the arduous vocality of Otello, some mediocrity creeps in. "Esultate" is not in the Lauri-Volpi or Del Monaco's glorious Italian tradition, the key words "Vien" and "un bacio" in the ethereal, amorous duet "Già nella notte densa" are whispered although some redemption is restored with a well sustained mezza voce in "...Venere splende", the ferocious and solemn oath-taking duet with Jago is a bit disappointing at the end, where "Dio vendicator" is a surprisingly short and colourless squillo, "Dio, mi potevi scagliare" is good in the piano monotone but colourless in the squillo "...Oh, gioia!" but "Niun mi tema" is quite a remarkable fraseggio. His Italian diction is fair.

Mirella Freni - She belongs to the cream of Italian sopranos who made singing history from Storchio, Pandolfini, Favero, Pampanini, Olivero and recently to Scotto. Her Mimì was the most celebrated, perhaps the greatest of all Puccini's frail seamstresses. For vocal, expressive and scenic qualities, she became household name at Salzburg as Zerlina, Susanna, Elisabetta di Valois, last but not least Desdemona in the repertoire of the Austrian city' supreme son, Herbert von Karajan. Freni never performed better with any other conductor than with Karajan.

In this 1974 edition of Otello, her Desdemona is cajoled, inspired, advised, even pushed by Karajan to use colours, refinements and sfumature to which she was not used. Her amorous canto in the love duet, the passionate, pure-hearted and exhilarating lament "A terra...si...nel livido fango..." prostrate on the floor of the castle hall of ceremonies in front of the stupefied Venetian dignitaries, the meditative, sad recollections in the Willow song and soulful prayer "Ave Maria" in her bed chamber are striking proof of an exceptional voice-orchestra fusion.

Peter Glossop - A distinguished English baritone born in Sheffield and an excellent interpreter of the Italian Romantic Opera at Covent Garden and the major theatres of the world. His repertoire included Rigoletto, Count di Luna, Scarpia, Simon Boccanegra, Guy de Montfort (I Vespri Siciliani) and Jago. He had voice for sale, warm, expressive accents and great acting ability. His Rigoletto in particular was a voice of decades gone by.

In this 1974 edition of Otello, his Jago is almost unmatched. His scenic presence is imposing, gestures and facial expressions, supported by a good mezza voce, weave a diabolical cynicism of nearly Tito Gobbi's dimensions while his "Credo in un Dio crudel" crowns him as the Mephistophelean villain so much aspired by Verdi, who found the monologue "most beautiful and wholly Shakespearean!"

Herbert von Karajan - A native of Salzburg, he was only nineteen when he became permanent conductor at the Opera of Ulm in 1927, of Aquisgraine from 1935 to 1942, took the place of the great Wilhelm Furtwangler as conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1954 and became the Salzburg Festival director in 1956. He conducted in Italy frequently by interpreting Wagner and Mozart but also the Italian masters' operas, including Lucia, Falstaff, Traviata, Boheme and Cavalleria rusticana. He interpreted Tosca in Berlin, Trovatore in Vienna and Don Carlos at Salzburg. He was admired for a vast symphonic and operatic repertoire, conducting authority, live, incisive and dramatic style, great plasticity and constant pursuit of sound, vocal and orchestral beauty.

In this 1974 edition of Otello, Karajan is the orchestra conductor, artistic and stage director. Known for his unsurpassable analytical ability, he leads the orchestra to a dismembering of each detail of the score with the best timbre possible. The tempi and sound of this Otello as interpreted and executed by Karajan are majestic, glorious, solemn, totally innovative and mesmerising.

The staging is outdoors and not on the theatre platform. It is confined, done exquisitely and gives the impression of a stage production despite that the act I tempest scene is real and shot on the screen. The picture quality is excellent. The sound is superb stereo. Beautifully illustrated, the booklet is in English, German and French, contains a synopsis of the opera, no libretto but a partition of each act into the salient arias, duets, ensembles each accompanied by a very informative sequence of the plot and corresponding DVD track number.

This production of Otello is indeed a masterpiece. The performances of the three principals -- Jon Vickers as Otello, Mirella Freni as Desdemona and Peter Glossop as the treacherous Iago - are among the best one could wish for. On this occasion, I believe Vickers is on par with Placido Domingo, a consummate interpreter of the role of Otello. Freni's performance here, as was generally the case, bought me close to tears. A nastier villian (Peter Glossop)one could not wish for. In my opinion, the dramatic intensity of these three performers is equal and in some respects superior to any thing else available on video. Technically the video is very good, with an excellent picture and impeccable PCM stereo sound. A CD version of this production was available for many years and I found it to be superlative. The artistic direction of von Karajan is full of authority and drama. It should be noted that this production was shot in a film studio and in this case, because of the flexibility this affords the director is superior to a presentation in an opera house. The opening storm scene is indeed electrifying in its impact.

I bought this DVD simply because I had seen the opening of this film on TV before. And surely watching that opening alone is worth all the money. Karajan directed this film with much conviction. The opening scene took place at a harbor hit by a storm, with waves splashing onto the ground where the chorus sang and then a ship was shown trying to dock amidst the waves and wind, matching the turbulent music so well. After few dramatic shots, the ship landed and showed Vickers (otello) walked on land and sang with such a powerful voice. That is surely one of the greatest opera scene and greatest music Verdi had written. Drama did not die down but continue to sustain throughout the opera. Vickers who was famous for singing Otello almost became Otello himself. His temper and passion was shown at every scene by Vicker's manic expression, though he could do with more painful expression in the last scene after he killed his wife. (I guess he was too busy singing) Freni again with her angel-like heavenly voice and small figure (it would not work with huge fat ladies in this film)is the ideal Desdemona. Deeply touching singing in her last great arias before she died. Karajan's machine-like Berliner Philharmonie was excellent in drama but may lack warmth at times, especially with such a rather harsh and dry DG sound typical of that time. The great love duet in Act one is interesting in that it is played with quite sus

Prior to buying this, I already owned two magnificent DVDs of Otello, so why bother with a third? First, this is a film as opposed to a staged production, so I was curious about what Herbert von Karajan could do with this opera, having already fallen in love with his film of Carmen. Second, this is Otello, often called the greatest and most perfect opera ever written, and a personal favorite of mine. Finally, I took a look at the names on the credits: von Karajan, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni. That pretty much sealed the deal. After all, a person can never get too much of Otello.

Was it worth it? Overall, the answer is a resounding yes. As he did with Carmen, von Karajan has created a beautiful film that captures the essence of Verdi's music and themes. From a visual standpoint, this stands as one of the best opera films I've seen. Otello is an opera that starts with a bang, ends with a whimper, and the movie follows suit, opening with a convincing and violent seaside storm, ending with Otello's regret-filled death where he seems to simply fall asleep at Desdemona's side. In between those stunning moments is a film of great beauty and depth. The look of von Karajan's Otello is brooding and mysterious which matches the haunting music. The violence of the sea, the dark inner chambers contrast with bright outdoor scenes, capturing not only the contrasting souls of Otello and Desdemona but also the conflicting characteristics of Otello himself. Otello wants to be good, loyal, noble, in fact he IS all of these things throughout many aspects of his life and career, but there is an inner demon driving him toward his doom. Some might say that demon is Iago, but I see Iago as the impetus, the demon is something that dwells within and has always been there, long before the arrival of the story's "villain." In fact, I have always thought of Iago as less a flesh and blood character, more a manifestation of the Moor's own insecurities, his private yearnings and jealousies, his private rage, Otello's alter ego if you will. Von Karajan explores this provocative idea by casting a performer who looks quite similar to the actor portraying Otello.

Which brings me to the performances. Before Placido Domingo owned the role of Otello(and rightly so), the part belonged to the great heldentenor Jon Vickers. What is it about Vickers that makes him so good at playing deranged characters, Don Jose, Samson, Tristan, Peter Grimes and Otello? Possibly, it's his face, his weathered and wounded features, or perhaps that piercingly beautiful voice of his, that tragic quality of eternal longing and deep-seated despair. At any rate, I'm not sure if there has ever been a better Otello, a singing actor who brings the character's demons and pathos to life so convincingly. Mirella Freni captures both the strength and fragility of Desdemona, both through her appearance and her devastating singing. Her performance is solid throughout, but her Willow Song and Ave Maria are the highlight, under her command they become masterpieces of mood and transcendence, the calm before the storm, and even after dying she is still effective, looking lovely and heartbreaking, enough to melt the heart of the raging Otello. Peter Glossop captures the diabolical essence of Iago, making the character both despicable and seductive, so it is easy to imagine Otello being taken in. Oh, and his baritone voice is ideal for the role, masculine, deep, powerful, without being the slightest bit ragged.

Okay, so it's five stars for the opera(that goes without saying) and five stars for the film. So why am I hesitant to slap an unqualified five star rating on this puppy? Two reasons. One, the sound quality is less than stellar, it fluctuates throughout, with some of the quieter moments barely audible while the louder moments practically thunder out of the TV set. Visually the transfer is pristine, hardly grainy at all, you would think Deutsche Gramophone could have done a better job at remastering and balancing the sound. My second qualm: von Karajan commits the almost unforgivable sin of cutting part of E piangi!, the third act closer, that long and extraordinary number which starts quietly as an aria for Desdemona, builds into a full-blown ensemble and climaxes with a shattering crescendo. I admit, I'm something of a purist, on the whole I'm opposed to any cuts, especially to as lean a work as Otello, but when the cut happens to be in my favorite number in the whole opera I get especially irked. Granted, most of the piece is there, some listeners might not even notice the two or three minutes taken out, but I was annoyed. What's the point? The film, already close to two and a half hours long, would have been a few minutes longer. So what? The audience for this film isn't the multiplex crowd, people with low attention spans, it's opera lovers, people who don't care about sitting through a few extra minutes, they actually prefer it if it means preserving the integrity of the work. As I said, I was annoyed...but not enough to damn the project as a whole.

Because this is an artful Otello, a memorable Otello, an Otello I am very happy to own. Otello lovers should take note, so should any lover of opera on film. Von Karajan has done it again.

This film version of Verdi's Othello -- directed and conducted by Herbert Von Karajan, a man of many talents -- is excellent in many respects, and more than adequate in most. The occasional variation in decibel level is perhaps the only flaw. Buckets of water (intended to serve as the spray of breakers) aside, the 'special affects' are pretty good. The film is nicely filmed; there were times I was convinced they'd found some Maltese castle, but apparently it was done in a Berlin studio. The camera moves subtly and slowly, with none of the frenetic movement (let alone car chases, etc.) that would probably characterize a film version today.

Desdemona would ideally be played by a younger woman than Mirella Freni, but her voice is fine, and her acting gives us a convincing Desdemona (loving and innocent). Peter Glossop is a very good, and sufficiently scary, Jago. He conveys well the moral elusiveness of the part, as well as the earnestness that compels Otello to trust him. Jon Vickers' gravity-defying hair is reminiscent of 1970s televangelists, but his voice is superb and his acting is good. He has a phenomenal presence; the nonchalance of Otello, which is importantly suggestive of his inner strength and confidence, is conveyed ever so well. That said (according to the accompanying description of the performance), Vickers deliberately stammers a line early on in the love duet to foreshadow an element of anxiety/fear. But overall to see him next to Jago is to see a lion next to a jackal. And yet the smooth 'jackal' wins, and the powerful, passionate 'lion' loses.... It is quite moving.

The Times (of London) described this as 'one of the best filmed operas ever made'. Perhaps this was true when it was first made (1974). Still, it has stood the test of time.

The lip-synching distractions that mar most opera films isn't too bad here. I found it tolerable and didn't prevent me from enjoying most of this DVD.
The acting isn't top-notch, as is regrettably the case with many opera movies. Best of the bunch in this department is Glossop, and what some may find as a lack of emphasis sometimes could simply be interpretative choices. Freni's acting I'm afraid could be best be described as stodgy, with occasional inspired moments that are very moving. Vickers adopts extremely operatic gestures that seem incongruent with the direction of the rest of the performers. Strangely enough, while Vickers manages to remain masculine throughout, these operatic gestures are those of sopranos... many Aidas and Giocondas of yesteryear have lamented their fate with the same movements. It doesn't help that he has to wear Caballe (Adriana or Lucrezia) sized rings, or that he looks like Liberace relaxing at home in his house robe. (And did he borrow those platform flip flops from Cio-Cio-San?).
Vocally, Freni's rendition is glorious. Seldom has she sounded so angelic. For a great Vickers Otello I'd listen to his earlier classic recording with Serafin. His performance here is less nuanced (interesting, since it's some years later) and there are a couple of problematic spots. Yet his "Dio, mi potevi scagliar" is magnificent. Glossop's performance is quite good, but many Iagos before and after have been much better.
Typically, Karajan's majestic direction favors the orchestra over the singers and may be too slow at times for many listeners. The bit on the Amazon editorial review regarding cuts must be wrong. It states that Karajan does "present Verdi's score intact". I didn't follow it with the score or bothered to check it out, but there is definitely music missing in Act II (when the chorus is greeting Desdemona). The sets and the whole feel (colors, lighting) is very seventies. On DVD it looks and sounds fantastic, they did a great job with the transfer, as they did with the subtitles in several languages.
All in all, this isn't my favorite Otello. Still, I believe it is essential viewing for any opera lover as it features three important figures of the 20th century (Vickers, Freni, Karajan). No point in comparing it to other versions because it is in a class of its own. I believe Otello to be Verdi's greatest dramatic achievement, and there is much to gain from any performance. In the opera as film field, of which I am not the biggest fan (I prefer live staged versions), this one certainly ranks high.

This truly is one of the great documents of Otello available. Vickers is amazing in the title role, creating many moments that are literally hair-raising. Freni is a godess like Desdemona and the less melodramatic yet beleivably everybodys friend reading of Iago by Glossop allows him to become much more frightening in the long run - in this way it is surprisingly similar to Kenneth Branagh's interpretation on film.
There are moments that do seem more stage-like that film-like, yet one is drawn into the experience so easily it is easy to forget such trivial matters.
By the way, watch out for a special cameo appearance which happens twice in Iago's drinking song!

The omission of James McCracken fom your list of great 20th century Otello"s completely detroys your wordy article and your claim to know(seemingly) what is good and what is great.Vickers may have been great but Domingo was woefully limited...through no fault of his own,-he just didn't have the voice.MaCracken was magnificent.