[Met Performance] CID:255150



Otello
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, October 3, 1978




Otello (231)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Otello
Jon Vickers

Desdemona
Renata Scotto

Iago
Cornell MacNeil

Emilia
Jean Kraft

Cassio
Raymond Gibbs

Lodovico
James Morris

Montàno
Robert Goodloe

Roderigo
Andrea Velis

Herald
Arthur Thompson


Conductor
James Levine







Review 1:

Review of Thor Eckert Jr. in the Christian Science Monitor

Met's 'Otello' stirs with sense of a mighty fall.

Vickers, Scotto shine under Levine's baton

James Levine climbs from strength to strength on the podium of the Metropolitan Opera. His [first]-night "Tannhäuser" proved an extraordinary affair, his leadership of Verdi's "Otello" another towering achievement.

There was considerable excitement over this revival, for Jon Vickers proved sensational as the Moor last season. This season, he was to be joined by Renata Scotto as Desdemona. The pairing made for one of the grandest evenings of grand opera in recent memory.

Vickers was not in his smoothest voice the first night, but his characterization is awesome. Here in the fall of a mighty human being, so charted by Verdi in one of the great operatic scores, if one does not wax emotional at the end of the opera, one nevertheless is profoundly strirred by the mightiness of the fall, and the staggering dignity and strength of this Otello.

Miss Scotto, on the other hand, is probably the most committed and vulnerable Desdemona the Met has seen in many a year. She brings an elemental veracity to every word she sings, and she has an uncanny ability to project the intricate facets, the depths of despair, the horrible perplexity of Desdemona's plight. Her singing was all one could ask from her, including some truly moving pianissimi in the last act.

Cornell MacNeil's Iago lacks a certain amount of evil in the presentation, but he makes a vocal antagonist of imperative dimension. Raymond Gibbs was an ineffectual Cassio, James Morris a vibrant, imposing Lodvico.

Levine's interpretation was edgier, more volatile than last year, the peaks reaching higher than ever, with the lyric repose fraught with tension.



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