The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

Posted:

Shakespeare's 'Othello' made a triumphant return to Venice last week.

St Mark's Square in Venice last week was the spectacular backdrop to a tragic opera in the first open-air performance in 43 years by the famous La Fenice theatre – a new must on the global culture calendar.

La Fenice staged Italian maestro Giuseppe Verdi's interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello, The Moor Of Venice – with South Korea's Myung-Whun Chung conducting La Fenice's orchestra and choir.

The performance, which coincided with the 200th anniversary of Verdi's birth, was the first since 1970 and was held in the courtyard of the richly decorated Doge's Palace that took up one side of the square. Othello was a popular opera in Venice in the 1960s.

US tenor Gregory Kunde played Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and Italian soprano Carmela Remigio played his spouse Desdemona.

Othello is one of Verdi's last works and premiered to a rapturous welcome at La Scala in Milan in 1887. Verdi at the time had not composed an opera since Aida in 1871 and there were doubts about his career.

Othello is set in a town in Cyprus in the 15th century when the glory of Venice was at its peak and is filled with references to the great trading empire.

In a Venetian production "the spirit of the place of course plays a role", producer Francesco Micheli told Italian daily La Stampa.

"All this is taking place in a city suspended on the water, always on the point of falling down, but always miraculously surviving," he said.

Othello is "a man of the sea who won against his enemies and a storm, but also shows his personal frailty -- a Messiah who walks on water but then drowns in a glass of water," he said. Othello is the highlight of a music festival in Venice running until Aug 24. - AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 23 Julai 2013