(Otello)

Content: One of the chief pleasures of this live production of Otello from the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden is Daniel Barenboim's conducting. From the opening gale-force blast of storm music, through the crunching and stabbing accompaniment of Iago's "Credo" to the shimmering strings of Desdemona's "Willow Song", he doesn't miss a trick. Everything works at the highest pitch of intensity and the orchestra sticks to his beat like glue. It's a necessary compensation for the shortcomings of the staging: the stolid chorus remains unperturbed by the storm and is directed to perform with unison movements; the acting (apart from Valeri Alexejev) is non-committal, and Alexandre Tarta's video direction somewhat flat-footed. She doesn't manage to make much small-screen sense of an impenetrably murky opening scene, for example, and doesn't seem fond of reaction shots.

Countries:

Genres:

Music

Runtime:

157 minutes

Year:

2001

Directors:

Jürgen Flimm

Actors:

Otello (tenor)

Desdemona (soprano)

Iago (baritone)

Cassio (tenor)

Roderigo (tenor)

Crews:

Musician

Original Music Composer

Conductor

Director

Writer