Quiet tragedy: Robert Wilson's Otello in Baden-Baden

By Ako Imamura, 17 April 2019

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“Act 3 became, in Mehta’s hands, a masterclass of building slow tension”

Reviewed at Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden on 16 April 2019

Verdi, Otello

Zubin Mehta, Conductor

Robert Wilson, Director, Set Designer

Jacques Reynaud, Costume Designer

Stuart Skelton, Otello

Sonya Yoncheva, Desdemona

Vladimir Stoyanov, Iago

Anna Malavasi, Emilia

Francesco Demuro, Cassio

Gregory Bonfatti, Roderigo

Giovanni Furlanetto, Montano

Tomasz Jeziorski, Video

Philharmonia Chor Wien

Berliner Philharmoniker

Reaching for the light: Arvo Pärt and Robert Wilson's Adam's Passion

Alissa Balocco, 31st March

For the first time in Italy the opera that brings together the spiritual music of the Estonian composer and the minimalist direction of Robert Wilson.

****1

Classic Robert Wilson: Turandot opens Canadian Opera Company season

John Gilks, 28th September

Director Robert Wilson and conductor Carlo Rizzi combine effectively to create a visually striking and musically memorable Turandot that emphasizes the hieratic and the mythical with a notable absence of unnecessary histrionics.

****1

Norma in Zurich: superb vocalists trapped in a minimalist staging

Sarah Batschelet, 2nd June

A production which has Robert Wilson's signature all over it, but feels like a wagon in front of the horse.

***11

Bob Wilson's cool minimalist Butterfly is back in Amsterdam

Nicolas Nguyen, 23rd April

Robert Wilson's Madama Butterfly is back in Amsterdam starring rising star Elena Stikhina as the doomed Cio-Cio-San.

***11

Wilson's lunar Trouvère the antithesis of grand opéra

Renato Verga, 29th September

When they asked Wilson to stage an opera by Verdi, the Texan director replied "I'll never do it!". Now he is at his fourth Verdi's production.

***11

Letter to a Man in LA

Jeff Slayton, 18th November

Mikhail Baryshnikov collaborates with Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs to present Letter To A Man based on the Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. It is an exploration into the troubled mind of an iconic genius that struggles with its own problems.

***11

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Ako Imamura

Atsuko (Ako) Imamura is a retired investment banker in New York City. Born in Japan, she trained as cultural anthropologist in the US before turning to ﬁnance. She now spends her time attending opera and classical music concerts in New York and in Europe. Wagner is her favorite opera composer.

Quiet tragedy: Robert Wilson's Otello explores depths of emotion in Baden-Baden