Organization

Singer

Tenor

John Osborn

Otello

Soprano

Cecilia Bartoli

Desdemona

Bass

Peter Kálmán

Elmiro

Edgardo Rocha

Jago

Mezzo-soprano

Liliana Nikiteanu

Emilia

Nicola Pamio

Doge

Ilker Arcayürek

Un gondoliere

Conductor

Muhai Tang

Stage director

Moshe Leiser

Patrice Caurier

Set designer

Christian Fenouillat

Costume designer

Agostino Cavalca

Lighting designer

Christophe Forey

Chorus master

Jürg Hämmerli

Javier Camarena

Rodrigo

Lucio

Opernhaus Zürich

Orchestra

La Scintilla

Others

Chor der Oper Zürich

alemana

Zurich

Switzerland

Opernhaus

Otello by Rossini from Zurich Opera, performed at Paris Opera Bastille, 2012. Directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, conductor Muhai Tang. Starring John Osborn (Otello), Cecilia Bartoli (Desdemone), Peter Kalman (Elmiro), Javier Camarena (Rodrigo), Edgardo Rocha (Jago), Liliana Nikiteanu (Emilia), Nicola Pamio (Doge di Venice) and Ilker Arcayurek (Gondoiero). Performance Language Italian and Subtitled in English and French.

At the Zürich Opera House, a new production of Rossini’s Otello puts Cecilia Bartoli’s Desdemona and John Osborn’s titular turn in the spotlight! The Otello that Gioachino Rossini presented at Naples’s Teatro del Fondo in 1816 is (very) liberally adapted from the celebrated Shakespearean tragedy. The libretto by Franceso Berio actually draws more inspiration from another play that premiered in Naples in 1813: Baron Carlo Cosenza’s Otello. In this drama, the figure of Iago takes a backseat to the enmity between the Moor, already married in secret, and Rodrigo, whose love for Desdemona remains unrequited. The motif of the handkerchief is replaced by a love letter whose intended recipient, Othello, believes it destined for another.

Despite the grumblings of a few critics who would’ve preferred a version that hewed more closely to the Bard’s, Rossini’s operatic adaptation remained popular in opera houses worldwide… until Verdi’s rewrite came along in 1887. Rossini’s Otello is very rarely staged today: after all, it requires three truly exceptional tenors for the roles happily conferred here upon John Osborn, Javier Camarena, and Edgardo Rocha. The new Zürich production, staged by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, sees the great mezzo Cecilia Bartoli step unforgettably into the shoes of Desdemona, while Muhai Tang leads the impeccable Orchestra La Scintilla.

Cecilia Bartoli appears courtesy of Decca.

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