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Desdemona da Rimini Frankfurt
Oper
05/17/2024 - & May 19, 26, 31, June 8, 15*, 2024
Gioacchino Rossini: Otello
Theo Lebow (Otello), Nino Machaidze (Desdemona), Levy Sekgapane (Rodrigo), Francisco Brito (Iago), Erik van Heyningen (Emilio Barberigo), Kelsey Lauritano (Emilia), Michael McCowan (The Doge), Abraham Bretón (A Gondolier)
Chor der Oper Frankfurt, Tilman Michael (Chorus master), Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Sesto Quatrini (Conductor)
Damiano Michieletto (stage director), Andrea Bernard (Revival director), Paolo Fantin (sets), Carla Teti (costumes), Alessandro Carletti (lighting)
N. Machaidze, T. Lebow (© Barbara Aumüller)
Rossini’s Otello (1816) is a vastly different work from Verdi’s 1887 homonymous masterpiece. In Rossini’s opera, the action no longer takes place in Cyprus but rather in Venice. There is no handkerchief, a pivotal prop in both Verdi’s opera and Shakespeare’s play. Desdemona is not strangled but instead stabbed by her jealous husband. Iago is no longer the Deus ex machina evil incarnate, though he remains an instigator. Moreover, he too has once been a rival for Desdemona’s affections. Rodrigo, a minor character in Verdi’s opera and in Shakespeare’s play is a major character in Rossini’s opera. Indeed, much of the opera is about his jealous fury and desire for revenge against Otello. Musically, his character is given the most florid music.
Astonishingly, three of the major four characters (Otello, Rodrigo and Iago) are tenors. Three other minor characters (the Doge of Venice, Lucio and a gondolier) are also tenors. This has led to various alternatives: one with a baritone Otello, initiated by the legendary Manuel García Jr (1805‑1906) and another with a mezzo as Otello, started by María Malibran (1808‑1836) and recently reprised at the Martina Franca Festival. Basses and baritones, such as Antonio Tamburini (1800‑1876) have also assumed Iago’s role.
Damiano Michieletto, one of the most interesting stage directors of our time, was one of my motivations for seeing this performance. Compared with Verdi’s opera, Rossini’s Otello, though musically magnificent, is dramatically weak. Michieletto has therefore devised several modifications that tighten the plot: the action is moved from the sixteenth century to contemporary Venice; the characters are transformed into family members; Emilia, Desdemona’s dame de Compagnie and confidante, is made into her sister; Rodrigo becomes the son of the Doge of Venice, a business magnate in the contemporary setting; Iago becomes a cousin of Rodrigo’s; and finally, Otello becomes a businessman from an oil‑rich Gulf state.
Given the overwhelming presence of xenophobia as well as islamophobia in Europe’s current socio-political landscape, the updated epoch could be an interesting innovation. However, it also presents some weaknesses: why would a citizen of an oil‑rich Gulf state leave his wealthy homeland in favour of a modestly prosperous Italy? Most of all, why would he conspire against his own to benefit a Venetian business conglomerate? Some elucidation would have been welcome.
American lyric tenor Theo Lebow’s agile voice fit perfectly in the vocally and dramatically demanding role of Otello. He was convincing as a smart businessman, yet appeared socially gauche, unaware of his own gaffes and cultural particularities. The fact that his gift of a scarf, evocative of an Islamic head covering, to Desdemona was a faux pas seemed to escape him. Placing it on her head shocked the guests at the Barberigo household, the Doge included. Needless to say, this is a Michieletto gimmick not found in the libretto. It’s to be noted that at the opera’s Frankfurt premiere five seasons ago, Lebow sang Iago, a much less vocally significant role.
Young South African tenor Levy Sekgapane brilliantly sang the demanding coloratura tenor role of Rodrigo. This a bel canto tenor who is much in demand for Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti roles in Europe’s finest opera houses. His lighter voice beautifully contrasted with Lebow’s. This was especially the case in the Act II duet with Otello “Ah, vieni! Nel tuo sangue vendicherò le offese”. His bravura Act II aria “Ah come ascolto!...Come mai tu non senti?” was elegantly interpreted. His portrayal of the Doge’s son was convincing thanks to his proud regal deportment.
The absolute star of the evening was Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze. I first heard Machaidze some fifteen years ago in Bologna’s Teatro Comunale as Elvira in I Puritani and she made a huge impression. The tessitura of Rossini’s Desdemona isn’t an especially high one. In 1978, it was recorded by mezzo Frederica von Stade and was performed in Zurich by another mezzo, Cecilia Bartoli, in 2012. More than impressive high notes, the role requires great acting skills which Nino Machaidze has in abundance. Her Act III Willow Song “Assisa a pie d’un salice” was the highlight of the performance.
Iago, much less important in Rossini’s opera, is given more importance by making him a part of the Doge’s family. His machinations become more understandable in light of his envy of his cousin Rodrigo, heir to the family fortune. His intent is for Otello to kill Rodrigo rather than to hurt Otello per se. As Iago, Argentinian tenor Francisco Brito convincingly portrayed a deranged sociopathic enfant terrible, not uncommon in rich families, taunting family members and engaging in outrageous behaviour at family gatherings. Vocally less brilliant than Rodrigo or Otello, Brito as Iago was a true bête de scène who impressed with his dramatic prowess.
Emilia, now Desdemona’s sister, is no longer just a confidante but the younger sister envious of the attention granted her older sister. Indeed, she has set her sights on rich boy Rodrigo and successfully lands him as her betrothed by the opera’s end. American mezzo Kelsey Lauritano started with a rather unpleasant vibrato but before long she sounded fine, and her voice blended well with that of Desdemona, especially in the Act I duet “Vorrei che il tuo pensiero”. In her role as the younger sister, she acted like the obedient child, eager to please daddy.
American bass-baritone Erik van Heyningen portrayed Emilio Barberigo, Desdemona’s father. Van Heyningen had the only role requiring a low voice. An excellent actor, he conveyed his antipathy towards Otello from the start of the opera, possibly insinuating a slide in his own prestige due to the accomplishments of the foreigner. He had no solo arias and sang in ensembles where his lower voice stood out. Endowed with great stage presence and a pleasant timbre, one would have liked to have heard more of him.
American tenor Michael McCowan played the mostly character role of the Doge, Rodrigo’s father in this setting. Reduced to a wheelchair, he portrayed an aging head of a clan. He masterfully conveyed his anger toward his son and Otello’s perceived insolence by agitating his cane vehemently on several occasions.
Much of the success of the performance is also thanks to conductor Sesto Quatrini, who led the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester with gusto. Especially attentive to the needs of his singers, this is a man with a special affection for Rossini and bel canto.
Michieletto chose to introduce Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo from Dante’s Commedia Divina (1472). In the opera’s last act, a gondolier repeats Francesca’s moving lines “Nessun maggior’ dolore ch’il ricordare dei tempi felici nella miseria” (lines I almost used to dedicate an unfortunate Master’s thesis in Chemistry, but wisely substituted with other less offensive lines by the same Dante). Michieletto makes this reference to Dante’s doomed lovers a key to his revision of the work.
From the opening scene in the Barberigo’s posh palazzo, the living room is adorned by Italian Symbolist Gaetano Previati’s Morte di Paolo e Francesca (1887), which shows a dead Francesca embracing Paolo with a dagger in his back. That painting appears prominently in several scenes as a clin d’œil to Otello and Desdemona’s imminent tragic fate. Desdemona came of age with this painting, possibly identifying with the lovers. She may have even championed Francesca. In a way, her sensibility and attraction to the forbidden may have been pivotal to her secret matrimony with the foreign Otello, a choice she knew would be problematic.
Throughout the performance, two actors resembling the painting’s doomed lovers appear during various scenes, mostly in Francesca’s presence and once in Otello’s. The dead lovers roam around the palazzo as if haunting it. On two occasions, they present a sword to Desdemona and to Otello, symbolizing the same jealous rage that doomed Dante’s lovers.
The most powerful twist in Michieletto’s staging was linking Francesca to Isaura, Desdemona’s friend that she evokes in her moving Willow song, “La canzon del salice”, the opera’s most famous aria. Desdemona evokes Isaura’s tragic fate on hearing “Nessun maggior dolore,” sung here by the family doctor rather than a gondolier. Machaidze’s interpretation of the aria was simply shattering, clearly indicating she is thinking of herself while evoking her dead friend. Though different from Verdi’s setting of the Willow Song, it is certain that Verdi was influenced by Rossini’s melancholy version.
During the aria, the actress playing Francesca disrobes and has Desdemona wear her dress, a metaphor for passing the torch or the cross of victimhood. She then lays down holding white lilies, symbol of love and purity, in an enactment of the famous painting Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais (1829‑1896). If Rossini’s music and Machaidze’s interpretation weren’t enough to break your heart, this final mise en place sealed the deal.
It’s notable that Michieletto resorted to two 19th Century paintings, one by an Italian Symbolist and the other by a co‑founder of the Pre‑Raphaelites.
In the final scene, Otello is reluctant to kill his sleeping wife using the pistol Iago had left below the painting of Paolo and Francesca. Theo Lebow was especially effective in the opera’s finale “Notte per me funesta,” when the Doge and his followers erupt to announce Iago’s demise, the revelation of his plot and Otello’s pardon and Barberigo’s consent of his daughter’s wedding to the Arab. In response to Desdemona’s father’s “La man di mia figlia”, Otello responds “La man di tu figlia...Sì, unirmi a lei deggio Rimira” as he shoots himself. Alas, the deed is already done. Otello chooses to die rather than to live rehabilitated in his “adoptive” homeland.
Ossama el Naggar
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