Yesterday I attended the "Otello and Othello" organized by the Shakespeare Society of New York at the New York Historical Society. For those of you not in New York City, the Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a new production of Otello (the opera by Verdi) directed by one of the very best theater men working today, Tony winner and National Drama Desk winner Bartlett Sher. I saw it last week and it is superb. The voices of course are phenomenal - those are the best singers in the world, after all - and the visuals are stunning with the rich blue of the set and the pink, red or white of the women's gowns on stage. I loved it.
The Shakespeare Society held an event with Bartlett Sher himself and Stephen Greenblatt (author of Pulitzer Prize winning Swerve) who discussed Otello and Othello in a conversation moderated by the artistic director of the Shakespeare Society, three actors who played scenes of Shakespeare's Othello and two singers who sang their counterparts in Verdi's Otello. Actors and singers were spectacular: Kelly Curran (actress), Michael Stuhlbarg (actor, Iago), John Douglas Thompson (actor, Othello), Francesco Anile (singer, Otello) and Stefan Ignat (singer, Iago). Applause is also due to accompanist Nimrod David Pfeffer.
Sher's and Greenblatt's insights were illuminating. I particularly loved the comments Sher made on his director's job. Can you believe he only had about two weeks to stage the production? (That means you can go over a scene once or twice and then you have to move on. Yet, Friday's performance looked flawless, as far as I'm concerned.) Such practices stand in sharp contrast with the modus operandi on Broadway where you have time to get every detail right through rehearsals and then previews before the show officially opens. Directing an opera at the Met forces the artistic staff to focus on the broad strokes instead, in a role akin to that of an athlete's coach. He also talked about how Aleksandrs Antonenko had already sung the role of Otello under Riccardo Muti, so he had already an idea of how to do things, while Sondra Yonchevo (magnificent when I saw her at the Met) had never sung Desdemona, which allowed more of a fresh start. But in the time allotted it is probably a good thing that not too many singers debut in a role at the same time.
I loved the contrast between the Shakespeare excerpts and their Verdi counterparts. Bartlett Sher pointed out that Shakespeare gives himself more time to develop scenes while Verdi cuts more to the point. Verdi also naturally conveys characters' inner turmoil through music. He differed from Shakespeare in having Otello explode more quickly with rage when Iago suggests Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. It was very clearly both in his notes and in the music. Other differences included that in the opera Otello's recollection comes rather quickly, while it progresses at a slower pace in Shakespeare. Also, in the opera Iago disappears from the stage rather quickly after his treachery is discovered. Desdemona accepts her death with resignation while in the play, she insists that she did not deserve this. It was interesting to observe how Verdi made the story his own, in a way. The music itself reflected Otello's inner turmoil, but Otello and Othello have quite different characters, with Shakespeare's Othello more subdued.
Sher and Greenblatt agreed that Iago's true talent lay in identifying the weakness of the person in front of him, adjusting to what he said to better worm his way into that person's heart. His skill at manipulating Otello/Othello is stunning. He also paces himself carefully to obtain the desired effect instead of making slanderous accusations against Desdemona from the start. But they also insisted that Othello is the true hero of the play.
I've never seen Othello in the theater but the Shakespeare Theater Company is staging it in the spring in DC - I wasn't going to go but after Verdi's masterpiece and yesterday's great event, I might give it a try. Shakespeare's insights into the darkest of souls, as relevant today as they were 400 years ago, just take my breath away.
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