Othello by Verdi, De (2021/2022), Dirigit per Jasmina Hadziahmetovic, Director musical Alexander Merzyn, Frank Bernard, Andreas Simon, Großes Haus, Cottbus, Germany

Shakespeare's dramas fascinated the composer Giuseppe Verdi throughout his life. Here he found the core of his own music theater: real people of tragic proportions. In his OTELLO, together with the librettist Arrigo Boito, he created the psychological drama of a man who perishes because of his own self-image. Director Jasmina Hadžiahmetović takes this basic conflict as the starting point for a questioning of human nature in war and peace. The outsider Otello, who can only maintain his place in society because of his military successes, is haunted by his war trauma until their wedding night: Desdemona loved him “for the sake of his suffering”. In the brutal murder at the end, the soldier's suppressed memories are expressed, as are the experiences of discrimination of the dark-skinned person, whom the hate-contorted look of Jago makes him look like.