Overview

One of the chief pleasures of this live production of Otello from the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden is Daniel Barenboim's conducting. From the opening gale-force blast of storm music, through the crunching and stabbing accompaniment of Iago's "Credo" to the shimmering strings of Desdemona's "Willow Song", he doesn't miss a trick. Everything works at the highest pitch of intensity and the orchestra sticks to his beat like glue. It's a necessary compensation for the shortcomings of the staging: the stolid chorus remains unperturbed by the storm and is directed to perform with unison movements; the acting (apart from Valeri Alexejev) is non-committal, and Alexandre Tarta's video direction somewhat flat-footed. She doesn't manage to make much small-screen sense of an impenetrably murky opening scene, for example, and doesn't seem fond of reaction shots.

Top Cast

C

Christian Franz

Otello (tenor)

Emily Magee

Desdemona (soprano)

Valeri Alexejev

Iago (baritone)

Stephan Rügamer

Cassio (tenor)

A

Andreas Schmidt

Roderigo (tenor)

Kwangchul Youn

Lodovico (bass)

G

Gerd Wolf

Montano (bass)

K

Katharina Kammerloher

Emilia (mezzo-soprano)