OTELLO

State Opera of South Australia. Festival Theatre, Adelaide.

Otello, State Opera of South Australia’s (SOSA) final production for this year, promises much for opera enthusiasts, including the stunning visual impact of its contemporary aircraft carrier setting.

Directed by Simon Phillips, the production opens at the Festival Theatre on October 25^th. It tells the story of a tragically flawed military commander, his glamorous and faithful wife, as well as his manipulative second in command. With love, fidelity and intrigue in play, devastating outcomes are inevitable.

The demanding title role is brought to life by Adelaide favourite Bradley Daley, while Miriam Gordon-Stewart stars as Desdemona and Douglas McNicol as the evil Iago.  Support roles are taken up by a plethora of Australia’s best operatic talent, together with the acclaimed State Opera Chorus. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Verdi specialist, Brad Cohen.

Giuseppe Verdi lived a long life, with his operas spanning six decades, however he wrote Otello very late in his creative period and following a hiatus of more than 10 years’ duration. Based on Shakespeare’s play Othello, the work is regarded as one of the most brilliant and demanding in Verdi’s repertoire.

Coincidentally, Adelaide audiences will have the opportunity to see the Bard’s Othello, staged by the State Theatre Company in November this year. I asked SOSA CEO and Artistic Director Timothy Sexton to reflect on what makes Verdi’s Otello such a different audience experience than for a fine production of Shakespeare's original play.

“The two works take very different tacks,” he said. “Whilst Verdi’s opera is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, the use of the text is much more economical. In the play, of course, you get to hear every word that Shakespeare wrote, which you need to hear because the text and the acting is the only way the story is conveyed. What Verdi, through his librettist Arrigo Boito has done, is condense and crystallise the essential elements of the work. The original Act One of the play, set in Venice, is dispensed with, and we begin the opera where Act Two of the play continues, at sea. This throws us straight into the action and allows Verdi to craft a brilliantly dramatic journey for the singers and the audience. Most importantly, Verdi doesn’t always need words. His music is so evocative and powerful that entire emotional landscapes in parts of the opera are brought to life without a single word being sung.”

Otello is expected to attract a wide cross section of arts lovers. I asked Timothy Sexton why this is so; in other words why the famous opera remains relevant to today's audiences.

Sexton said, “The themes of love, betrayal, jealousy, deceit, cruelty and revenge are universal. The removal of this story from its original 15^th century Venetian roots and placing it in the present day creates an opportunity for us to see that these themes easily translate across any time frame. It gives us a new angle on a timeless theme.  Shakespeare was a genius at capturing the frailty of the human spirit in words. Verdi was a genius at portraying such frailty in music, with melodies, harmonies and orchestrations that still reach out to us nearly one and a half centuries later. One only has to read the daily paper to see that human nature hasn’t changed. What the opera gives us is an opportunity for the characters marred by these flaws to achieve either a degree of nobility or for their demise to be amplified, giving us time to reflect on our own humanity.”

Otello is a co-production between State Opera of South Australia, Cape Town Opera, West Australian Opera, OperaQ, Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera.

“It’s a six-way partnership which reaches the four corners of Australia and spans oceans, in a collaboration which reinforces the fact that the opera family is indeed a global one,” said Timothy Sexton. “Now it’s Adelaide’s turn to host this incredible spectacle of operatic brilliance.”

Lesley Reed

When:7. 30 pm Saturday, October 25, Tuesday, October 28, Thursday, October 30, and Saturday, November 1.

Where: The Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.

Bookings: www.bass.net.auor call 131 246.

For more information, visit www.saopera.sa.gov.au.

Images: Douglas McNicol as Iago/ Douglas McNicol as Iago and American tenor Frank Porretta as Otello. Photographer: Stephanie Do Rozario, OperaQ.