Less is moor: a powerful, minimalist Otello in Düsseldorf

By Matthew Rye, 14 October 2016

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“a tragic denouement that seems inevitable from the opening bars”

Reviewed at Opernhaus, Düsseldorf on 13 October 2016

Verdi, Otello

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Axel Kober, Conductor

Michael Thalheimer, Director

Henrik Ahr, Set Designer

Michaela Barth, Costume Designer

Zoran Todorovich, Otello

Ian Storey, Otello

Jacquelyn Wagner, Desdemona

Boris Statsenko, Iago

Sarah Ferede, Emilia

Ovidiu Purcel, Cassio

Florian Simson, Roderigo

Bogdan Taloș, Lodovico

David Jerusalem, Montano

Stefan Bolliger, Lighting Designer

Luc Joosten, Dramaturgy

Gerhard Michalski, Choirmaster / chorus director

Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein

Düsseldorfer Symphoniker

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What's a director to do while we wait for technology to catch up with the complexities of the human condition?

***11

Duisburg’s Don Carlos rescued from a devastating deluge

Brian Angus, 17th May

What do you do when 80 tonnes of water flood your theatre, your sets and costumes? Rescue, reshape and present what you can. That’s what Deutsche Oper am Rhein have had to do in Duisburg.

***11

All the world's a stage: Xerxes as a comedy of backstage rivalry

Matthew Rye, 17th January

A revival of Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Xerxes in Düsseldorf makes for a rip-roaring evening of theatrical comedy.

****1

Stars and the score shine in The Count of Luxembourg

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 25th December

Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.

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Between two worlds: Wozzeck in Düsseldorf

Matthew Rye, 20th October

Stefan Herheim's eagerly awaited production of Berg's Wozzeck distances us from the emotional heart of the tragedy by portraying the story as a hallucinatory death-room experience.

****1

Die Zauberflöte in Düsseldorf

Edward Sava-Segal, 27th May

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute.

****1

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).