After retiring at age 58, Verdi would write no new operas for the next 16 years. It took a pivotal supper in Milan and the persistence of music publisher Giulio Ricordi to entice the Maestro to set about composing a new work, which he would only refer to as the “chocolate project”. The Moor Otello is a soldier, a general and a loving husband who, despite all of his accomplishments, is not accepted by the people of Venice: he remains the eternal "black" foreigner. The vulnerability of the stranger seeking to fit into society is something that is easy for false friends to exploit – as is his jealousy.
Otello is a masterpiece, an exceptional work of creative genius in which the composer sets Shakespeare's tragedy to the music of his own unmistakably Verdian voice.
Cast and Creative team for Otello at Hungarian State Opera, Opera House
Conductor
Conductor Pinchas Steinberg
Cast
Otello Rafael Rojas Desdemona Gabriella Létay Kiss Iago Mihály Kálmándi Emilia Judit Németh Cassio Gergely Boncsér Roderigo Gergely Ujvári Montano Sándor Egri Lodovico Ferenc Cserhalmi Herald Géza Zsigmond