Verdi: Otello

Barenboim, Daniel, soliści, Staatskapelle Berlin

DVD 100346

VERDI: Otello Opera in 4 acts / Sung in Italian From the Berlin Staatsoper Musical Direction: Daniel Barenboim Stage Direction: Jürgen Flimm Cast includes: Christian Franz, Emily Magee, Valeri Alexejev, Stephan Rügamer and Andreas Schmidt. Composer(s): Verdi, Giuseppe Lyricist(s): Boito, Arrigo • One of the chief pleasures of this live production of Otello from the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden is Daniel Barenboim's conducting. From the opening gale-force blast of storm music, through the crunching and stabbing accompaniment of Iago's "Credo" to the shimmering strings of Desdemona's "Willow Song", he doesn't miss a trick. Everything works at the highest pitch of intensity and the orchestra sticks to his beat like glue. It's a necessary compensation for the shortcomings of the staging: the stolid chorus remains unperturbed by the storm and is directed to perform with unison movements; the acting (apart from Valeri Alexejev) is non-committal, and Alexandre Tarta's video direction somewhat flat-footed. She doesn't manage to make much small-screen sense of an impenetrably murky opening scene, for example, and doesn't seem fond of reaction shots. That said, Christian Franz and Emily Magee both have large-scale voices that they know how to shade into mo! ments of intimacy, and George Tsypin's sets are impressive: the murder of Desdemona is set against a brilliant lake of fire.

DVD

Arthaus

20.09.2010

4006680103464