Giuseppe Verdi: Otello

Otello is an opera in four acts based on Shakespeare’s play Othello, masterfully condensed by librettist Arrigo Boito, who imbued the text with lyrical focus and musical dramaturgy. The opera follows the tragic downfall of Othello, a Moorish general from Cyprus, who is manipulated by the envious Iago into believing that his wife Desdemona is unfaithful to him, which ultimately leads him to murder and suicide. Although some traditional self-contained operatic numbers (such as arias and duets) remain, Verdi gave priority to declamatory melody, atmospheric orchestration and dramatic pacing, resulting in one of the greatest masterpieces of the 19th century. In February this year, the work returned to the stage of the SNG Maribor Opera and Ballet after an absence of almost three decades, in a production led by the Swiss director Guy Montavon, who is also the general secretary of the Paris-based European Theatre Directors Association. The SNG Maribor Symphony Orchestra will be directed by the Italian conductor Roberto Gianola, music director of the Istanbul Opera and Ballet Theatre, while the SNG Maribor Opera Chorus will be directed by Hungarian chorus master Zsuzsa Budavari Novak. Uruguayan tenor Carlos Marcelo Ventre, who made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1994 under the baton of Riccardo Muti, the Slovene soprano Sabina Cvilak, who has appeared several times with the legendary Plácido Domingo, and the Slovene baritone Luka Brajnik, who in 2013 received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation in Bayreuth.