Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Otello – opera in four acts (1887)
Otello – Jon Vickers (tenor)
Desdemona – Renata Scotto (soprano)
Iago – Cornell MacNeil (baritone)
Cassio – Raymond Gibbs (tenor)
Emilia – Jean Kraft (mezzo)
Roderigo – Andrea Velis (tenor)
Lodovico – James Morris (baritone)
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus/James Levine
Stage production by Franco Zeffirelli
rec. live, Metropolitan Opera, 25 September 1978
Region Code: 0; Aspect Ratio 4:3; Sound LPCM Stereo, DTS 5.1
SONY DVD 88697 910129 [144:00]
Parts of this DVD performance are very good, but the overall effect is rather
lacklustre. It’s one of the early Met telecasts and, for those who remember
him, we even get the interval announcements of veteran presenter Peter Allen.
Most people will be interested in this DVD because it captures a staged performance
from Jon Vickers, one of the greatest heroic tenors of the 20th
century. The most remarkable things about Vickers’ voice is its size, which
is still a marvel to behold in this performance. He can fill the vast auditorium
in the big moments of rage and his two majestic entrances in Act 1. However,
the voice was way past its best by the time he recorded this and the moments
of lyricism and vulnerability, just as important in this role, are all but
absent. Vickers’ voice always had a remarkably distinctive timbre, but there
is little beauty here and he often sounds desiccated or raw, nowhere more
damagingly than in the love duet. Niun mi tema also suffers for the
same reasons. Renata Scotto’s Desdemona is better but rather self-conscious.
She sings beautifully in the final act, but everything about her stage performance
is larger than life, perhaps because of the immensity of Zeffirelli’s production;
she seldom seems truly vulnerable or injured. MacNeil’s Iago is rather anonymous
in the first act, but warms up brilliantly for the Credo, revelling
in the devilry of his character, and orchestrating the action of Act 3 with
a demonic snarl on his features, but not in his voice.
Zeffirelli’s production is so gargantuan as to be grotesque. In the background
of Act 1 we see ships bobbing on the tossed waves, and a full scale galleon
appears on stage in preparation for Otello’s Esultate! Acts 2 and 3
take place against the backdrop of hulking medieval castle walls, dwarfing
the action and removing any intimacy. As Desdemona sings the Ave Maria
in the final act, the bed beside which she kneels is so enormous that she
can barely reach the pillows! This is far too monumental an approach to Verdi’s
great masterpiece and, for me, it diminishes rather than enhances the overall
effect. Levine’s direction is solid and the orchestra play well for him, but
the technical aspects of this DVD get in the way of full enjoyment. The picture
is grainy and limited and the cameras cannot cope with the dazzling light
reflected by Peter J. Hall’s unnecessarily sparkly costumes. Most damagingly,
the sound is boxy and restrictive so that, very unusually in my experience
of opera DVDs, it’s actually better to listen to this one on 2.0 stereo rather
than in DTS 5.1, and even then it’s nothing special.
Die-hard fans of Vickers or Scotto may decide to have a look at this DVD,
but for any lovers of the opera there are far better alternatives out there,
most obviously Solti’s fantastic Covent Garden performance on Opus Arte, featuring
Domingo and Te Kanawa. If you insist on Jon Vickers then you can hear him
to best effect on Serafin’s 1961 RCA set or you can see him on Karajan’s much
maligned DG film - don’t listen to those who tell you the lip-sync doesn’t
work: I didn’t find it off-putting and I enjoyed the film very much. Levine
and Scotto are much better on another RCA recording from 1978 featuring Domingo
and Sherrill Milnes. This Met DVD is okay, but nothing more.
Simon Thompson
Okay, but nothing more.