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Pascu’s fantastic performance masterfully kept guests on the edge of these said seats and was equally rich with such small details.
By HAGAY HACOHEN FEBRUARY 6, 2025 04:01
IAGO IS ABLE to poison Otello’s mind in the great Verdi opera.
(photo credit: YOSSI ZWECKER)
The Sunday evening premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello at the Israeli Opera Tel Aviv concluded with standing ovations.
The audience responded enthusiastically to tenor Kristian Benedikt’s heroic, and successful, struggle to overcome the flu and present a solid Otello – and they also lavished praise on soprano Iulia Maria Dan for an inspired Desdemona.
The Shakespearian play enthralled Verdi so much that he returned to the opera after taking a 16-year break following the success of Aida. When the audience witnessed the opening scene of this opera for the first time in 1887, a storm that nearly drowns Otello before he reaches Cyprus, the 74-year-old composer was in the orchestra himself playing the wind machine. In the same orchestra, on cello, was Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the first performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936.
Overcoming prejudice, Otello is awarded command of Cyprus by the Doge of Venice. He arrives on the island with his wife, Desdemona, and is greeted as the so-called “Lion of Venice” by the general public.
However, two men bode him ill. These are Roderigo (Vasyl Solodkyy) and Iago (Ionut Pascu). Roderigo is in love with Otello’s wife and Iago informs him that he, too, hates the moor because he suspects Otello had an affair with his own wife, Emilia (Rona Shrira).
Iago means to poison Otello’s mind by having him believe his wife is having an affair with Cassio (Alexei Dolgov). Cassio is two things Otello is not: young and white. When the Doge summons Otello back and puts Cassio in his place, it is enough to push Otello over the edge – with Iago offering a hand to assist this fall.
Iago, one of drama’s greatest villains, is a shrewd liar, so the alleged reason he gives Roderigo may be false. Directed by Adrian Noble and revived by Niv Hoffman, the stage is full of visual cues that warn us not to trust our eyes. The cheerful chorus does not see that behind it, the bodies of the sailors who died to “sink the pride of the Turk” in a naval battle are brought for burial.
Likewise, two groups of children flank the scene, spellbound to a storyteller, oblivious to the fateful arrival of their new ruler. This might be a sly warning to the patrons who watch, comfortable in their seats, following a tragically real war quite close to home.
Fantastic performance
PASCU’S FANTASTIC performance masterfully kept guests on the edge of these said seats and was equally rich with such small details. When he sang “Credo in un Dio crudel” (I Believe in a Cruel God) he seemed to be in dialogue with his own shadow, a man not yet fully committed to evil.
He pondered over his cup to ask what follows the grave, and then, as if making a decision – tossed its content on the floor and spat out: “nothing!” It is deeply rewarding to watch a version of Iago becoming a devil in front of our eyes – and not a so-called fully baked bad guy simply carrying out his evildoing.
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Maria Dan excelled in her role, earning so many delighted brava before her death scene that Benedikt graciously gave her a few more moments before resuming with the opera.
This Vienna Opera production is rich with foreshadowing. When Otello strangles Iago in rage, we chill, knowing this is how Desdemona is fated to be murdered. When Desdemona sings “D’un uom che geme sotto il tuo disdegno la preghiera ti porto” (I bring a petition from one who suffers under your displeasure), Emilia opens the handkerchief and shows it to us. The woman who champions forgiveness, tragically, will get none herself.
Lighting designer Jean Kalman – and his successor for this revival Adi Shimroni – deserve a tip of the hat for an ingenious usage of lights. On stage, we witness a lighthouse calling in Otello’s ship, the flickering lights of heaters placed next to laden tables in a merry feast, the Pleiades and Venus in the night sky, ornamented chandeliers, and the burning candles that accompany Desdemona during her last night prayer.
Set designer Dick Bird also deserves a nod, when Otello sings “Dio! Mi potevi scagliar” (God! You could have tossed me) he is kneeling between two enormous, symmetrical tables – a powerful visual telling of his struggle between two titanic powers, love and rage.
Otello, by Giuseppe Verdi, will be performed at Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St., until Thursday, February 13, at 8 p.m. Duration: Three hours with an intermission.
Italian with Hebrew and English subtitles. NIS 205-NIS 467 per ticket. Call (03) 692-7777 to book.
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