Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Domingo's Best Performance Ever!, April 15, 2004
I've seen Domingo perform Otello live about 24 times including being in the audience the night this was filmed as well as opening night. This was the most magical night in all my years of going to opera. The electric energy flying around the stage between the principals and the audience was almost unbearable. While waiting in line to see Renee backstage, the prompter (she has been with the Met some 40 years) asked if we had seen the opening night performance and we answered in the affirmative and she said "Well, I think tonight was better, in fact, I think it is the best performance of Otello I've ever seen!" And, I figure she's seen a few including those of Domingo. His acting in this performance is superb! He is Otello! James Morris was manipulative, evil and charming at the same time. Renee was a wonder! In fact the reviewer at the time for the L. A. Times said it should have been called "Desdemona" so enchanted with her performance was he. She had just given birth to her second daughter 3 weeks earlier and apologized to us for greeting us in her dressing room sitting down! After she falls on the floor, sings on the floor, runs and puts her entire heart and soul into her performance! The lady was forgiven! Domingo was in an extremely good mood after an opera that usually totally exhausts him! He knew that this was a very special performance. Thank you Met for broadcasting this as I watch it frequently and my tape is almost worn out! I've been waiting for this opera to be released as one of the most outstanding productions and casts ever of my favorite opera and now they have done it! If you can only buy one DVD this year, make it this one! Also, it's history, as you'll never see him again, or anyone else, I wager, that can come close to capturing the character and singing it as well as he does. This is opera magic!!!
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72 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Domingo or Domingo?, April 16, 2004
This DVD is a new release of a video Otello starring Placido Domingo in the title role. On DVD, there are already at least 3 of his Otellos, but this one surpasses them all.Domingo is outstanding, a bit better than in the Covent Garden production. He is in great voice, singing and acting magnificiently. There are some few strained passages ("vil cortigiana", "venere splende") but somehow they come out exciting as well. Morris and Fleming are of equal greatness. Morris has played an evil, manipulant Iago in his voice, and Fleming as Desdemona is the best I have ever heard. Levine as conductor is great as well. His job must have been "easier" with this incredible cast. The overall "movie impression" is worth of a great Hollywood piece of art. Not only is the singing outstanding but the acting of all the cast is incredible. I have never seen that before in any other opera DVD. When Otello slaps Desdemona you would actually jump of your seat as I've never seen such a realistic scene. Otello's fainting in the 3d act couldn't be more realistic. This list is long and encompasses the "Esultate", the act1 love scene, "Ora e per sempre"....and all the great ones. At the end of the performance, you couldn't but join your screaming and cheers to those of the Met crowd. Finally, a lot still argue about Domingo in the title role, and compare him to Vickers and Del Monaco. While everyone has his own opinion on the subject, let's be objective for a second:
Del Monaco's DVD in black and White with lips problem cannot compare to this good DVD production. Vicker's with Karajan has cuts, awful overall acting, and again lips problem, even though performance is amazing.
This is the BEST AVAILABLE OTELLO DVD (to date, I have said that same sentence when reviewing Covent Garden's.) I highly Recommend it!
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravi, e Tutti! ..., November 1, 2004
I first saw and heard Placido Domingo sing this role in the late seventies and early eighties, when the role was new to him. His interpretation then was that of a man in his early forties (where I am now), consumed by erotic fire and passion, and by anger at the racism and hypocrisies of the society in which he had risen, all of these emotions came together in his overwhelming and obsessive love for Desdemona.
Renata Scotto and Kiri Tekanawa both sang sensitive early interpretations of this misunderstood character, Desdemona, but Rene Fleming (though she is not a natural Verdi soprano) is simply unsurpassed in the delicacy and fragility of her phrasing, in her understanding of her character's love for this troubled man -- a love which makes her vulnerable and yet gives her strength.
With the passage of the years, Domingo's portrayal has become more sensitive and lyrical. The vocal heroics may not be what they were, though they still are in this late performance, but the infinite resignation and pathos of the final "Niun Mi Tema," would have been utterly impossible for the younger tenor.
The sense of tragedy and loss conveyed in this performance defies description or summary: it has to be experienced to be believed. It ensures Domingo's place as perhaps THE greatest "Otello" of the twentieth century. He joins the ranks of his heros -- Ramon Vinay, Giovani Martinelli and Mario Del Monaco in performing this greatest of all dramatic Operatic roles.
"Esultate!"
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