Otello
G. Verdi
At the age of 70, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) created "Otello", one of his most famous works, based on the drama of the same name by William Shakespeare - "Othello, the Moor of Venice". The opera is set at the end of the 15th century in Cyprus, which at that time is ruled by Venice. Otello, lord of the island, and his wife Desdemona fall victim in the course of the plot to the vicious and infamous intrigues of Iago, who acts out of base motives. The premiere at the Teatro alla Scala in 1887 was an indescribable triumph for Verdi, who had not composed an opera for 16 years by then and had actually already retired. After Verdi had already worked successfully with the librettist Arrigo Boito, himself a renowned composer and writer, in a new arrangement for "Simon Boccanegra", the two musicians collaborated again in 1879. Verdi was enthusiastic about Boito’s opera text for "Otello" and began composing it. With "Otello", the composer treads new musical paths and breaks with the old schemes of arias, duets or recitatives. A continuous structure and coherent entities characterise Verdi’s grandiose and psychologically subtly staged mature work.
Otello♪, G. Verdi
, the 17.John Fiore - Vincent Boussard
Hrachuhí Bassénz, Gregory Kunde, Alexeij Isaev
Semperoper
Don Carlo
G. Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813-1901) grand and full-length opera “Don Carlos” is based on Friedrich Schiller’s drama “Don Karlos, Infant of Spain”. The French original of 1867 was first performed in Paris, belongs to the genre of the Grand Opéra, was Verdi’s third commissioned work for the Paris Opera and has five acts; a second, shorter version was not performed until 17 years later at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Unlike the first version, this one contains four acts and has an Italian libretto instead of a French one. This also explains the two different spellings of the work: "Don Carlos" / "Don Carlo".
It is now known that seven different versions of the opera exist. After massive criticism, the composer was repeatedly forced to make changes and cuts to his work, as the first version, with almost five hours of playing time, was too lengthy even for the Parisian audience - an educated and music-loving audience that was quite used to the lengthy duration of the large-scale and epic Grand Opéra. After the second version had been favoured until the end of the 20th century, theatres today tend to favour the first, longer version, since in it the plots and motivations of the characters can be presented much better and more coherently.
Don Carlo♪, G. Verdi
, the 18.Jordi Bernacer - Vera Nemirova
Elena Guseva, Yulia Matochkina, Stefan Pop, Christoph Pohl, Alexandros Stavrakakis, Taras Shtonda, Elena Guseva
Semperoper
Kat’a Kabanova, L. Janaček
, the 19.Alejo Perez - Calixto Bieito
Christa Mayer, Amanda Majeski, Nicole Chirka, Martin Mitterrutzner, Kurt Rydl, Dmitry Golovnin
Semperoper