THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Met’s new OTELLO delivers when it counts

IMG_4286Last night I caught Bartlett Sher’s brooding if uneven new production of Verdi’s powerful Otello at the Met.

Sher’s production worked best on a bare stage with his singers, along with Luke Halls’ evocative projections and Donald Holder’s atmospheric lighting setting the scene. The production was less successful when it had to somewhat clunkily navigate around set designer Es Delvin’s ever-shifting translucent walls and corridors (in concept, a fine idea).

Aleksandrs Antonenko’s Otello (whom I had seen in the role in an unforgettable concert courtesy of the mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti a few years back), one of the foremost interpreters of the role and the first non-blackfaced Moor on the Met’s stage, gave an impassioned vocal and dramatic performance. He possesses an imposing (almost severe) presence and tenor that truly works in this color-blind interpretation of the work. You can see how others would both revere and fear this Othello. You can also see how someone like Željko Lučić’s charismatic, deliciously subtle Iago would come to envy and hate him. If the gorgeous young rising soprano Sonya Yoncheva was dramatically inert at times, she consistently sang with a full, lush sound. Ms. Yoncheva also came through when it truly counted. In the intense, moving fourth and final act, her rendition of the “Willow Song” and “Ave Maria” were absolutely spellbinding, as was her harrowing fatal final encounter with Otello.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s exciting, incisive conducting of the impressive Met forces brought out all the drama in Verdi’s masterful score.

RECOMMENDED

 

OTELLO
Opera
Metropolitan Opera
2 hours, 50 minutes (including one intermission)
Through October 17, with additional performances in the spring of 2016

Categories: Music, Opera

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