Otello

Verdi's penultimate opera receives a vibrant but also rather fierce performance in this production from the 2008 Salzburg Festival under the baton of conductor Riccardo Muti, who not only whips the Vienna Philharmonic into a frenzy, but also pushes the singers hard with tempi that range from extremely slow to frenetic (the orchestra copes beautifully, but the leads fare less well). In the famous tale of the Moorish general goaded by a nefarious lieutenant into jealously murdering his faithful wife, Marina Poplavskaya makes an affecting Desdemona, but Aleksandrs Antonenko is a blustering, vocally variable Otello, and Carlos Álvarez an oddly bland Iago. Emma Ryott's costumes are fine, but George Souglides' spare set design is simply dull, and when Stephen Langridge's staging doesn't opt for the obvious, the choices sometimes seem utterly arbitrary—as in the opening scene, in which the bawdy ladies of the chorus appear to be assaulting a captured Saracen boy. This reading of Otello is certainly dramatic, thanks to Muti's hyperactive leadership, but it glosses over many of the work's more subtle facets, and therefore cannot be preferred to earlier releases (see reviews in VL-1/10, VL-4/07, and VL-4/03). Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo on DVD and DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo on Blu-ray, extras include a “Talking Otello” featurette with comments from cast and crew. Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)