Otello

This listing is in the past

Leeds Grand Theatre Leeds, Yorkshire and the Humber, LS1 6NZ, United Kingdom

Dates/times in London time zone

Programme

Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901)

Libretto by Arrigo Boito

Performers

Opera North
Tim Albery	Director		2013 Jan 16, Feb mat
Orchestra of Opera North			2013 Jan 16
Chorus of Opera North			2013 Jan 16
Richard Farnes	Conductor		2013 Jan 16, Feb mat
Ronald Samm	Tenor	Otello
David Kempster	Baritone	Iago
Elena Kelessidi	Soprano	Desdemona
Ann Taylor	Mezzo-soprano	Emilia
Christopher Turner	Tenor	Roderigo
Henry Waddington	Bass	Lodovico
Dean Robinson	Bass	Montano

OTELLO by Giuseppe Verdi (1887)
NEW PRODUCTION
Sung in Italian with English titles
Running time: approx 2 hours 45 minutes

Iago, an ensign in the Venetian army, is a man who bears a grudge. When his general, Otello, passes him over for promotion in favour of Cassio Iago’s festering resentment quickly turns to downright malice, He poisons Otello’s mind with suspicion, and step by step, leads Otello to believe that his young wife Desdemona is in love with the young and handsome Cassio. And so Iago, a man consumed by envy, makes of Otello a monster of murderous jealousy.

Map

New production of Verdi's Otello from Opera North

Sam Wigglesworth, 21st January

Few operas begin as arrestingly as Verdi’s Otello; no overture here – or, indeed, the first act of Shakespeare’s play. Instead, in a single galvanising orchestral outburst a terrific storm is set in motion, underpinned by the most gratingly dissonant of pedals in the lowest reaches of the organ.

***11