Metropolitan Opera Preview: Otello

Gustavo Dudamel makes his Met debut. There's singing, too.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Baritone Željko Lučic returns as the evil Iago from Verdi's Otello.
Photo © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Verdi's tragedy returns to the Met stage for a short run of performances. This is the first revival of the Met's 2015 production of Verdi's opera. Otello is one of the hottest tickets of the early winter, mostly because of who's conducting....

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Otello

The first new Met production of the 2015-16 season returns.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The green-eyed monster: Iago (Željko Lučić, right) works his spell on Otello
(Aleksandrs Antonenko) in the Met's new production of Otello.Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Director Bart Sher steps away from the buffa comedies of Rossini and Donizetti to try his hand at Verdi's version of Shakespeare's tragedy. Aleksandrs Antonenko takes on the daunting title role in this new production, which opened the 2015-16 Met season. A review of opening night can be found here on Superconductor. Željko Lučić returns as Iago  and Hibla Gerzmava sings the role of Desdemona.

Opera Review: Heart of Glass

The Met opens with Bartlett Sher's new Otello.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The ocular proof: Iago (Željko Lučić, left) reminds Otello (Aleksandrs Antonenko)
why Verdi considered naming this opera Jago.

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of Verdi's Otello, which opened the company's 2015 season last night in a special gala performance, contains a preponderance of good directorial ideas, supporting a strong cast in this adaptation of Shakespeare's drama. This performance was broadcast live in Times Square on that crossing's giant television screens, and lost none of its power to shock and entertain despite having to compete with tourists, fire trucks, chattering desnudas and a street performer in an Elmo costume who stopped bothering said tourists long enough to watch the drama unfold.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Otello

Johan Botha and Renée Fleming return in this anticipated revival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A formidable general: Johan Botha as Otello.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met continues its 2012 celebration of Giuseppe Verdi's 200th birthday (which isn't until October 10, 2013) with this revival of Otello. The fall performances reunite South African heavyweight tenor Johan Botha with the glamorous Renée Fleming as the jealous Moorish general and his wife: desperately in need of couples counselling. Falk Struckmann is an oily, Germanic Iago. Semyon Bychkov, who led this opera at the Met in 2010 with the same cast conducts the fall performanc