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Daily Mail, 23 June 2017 |
By Tully Potter For The Daily Mail |
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Verdi: Otello, Royal Opera House, London, 21. Juni 2017 |
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Otello - Royal Opera House
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He's brave but Othello's too much of a wimp: Opera is a powerful production with a hole at the centre |
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The title role of Otello is a Leviathan of a part for a tenor. The greatest
interpreters — Tamagno, Zenatello, Del Monaco, Vickers, Domingo — have
possessed voices like trumpets. So how does Jonas Kaufmann fare with his
clarinet tone?
Despite a brave attempt, I fear that Jonas gets eaten
by the whale. He has clearly been working at his technique, but he’s like a
boy sent to do a man’s job and fails to dominate either the stage or the
music.
Of course, from this intelligent singer there are fine
moments, especially in the great Verdian soliloquies, but much of his acting
is of the staggering-about variety. Perhaps he worries that if he is too
still, no one will notice him.
The title role of Otello is a
Leviathan of a part for a tenor. The greatest interpreters — Tamagno,
Zenatello, Del Monaco, Vickers, Domingo — have possessed voices like
trumpets. So how does Jonas Kaufmann fare with his clarinet tone?
Despite a brave attempt, I fear that Jonas gets eaten by the whale. He has
clearly been working at his technique, but he’s like a boy sent to do a
man’s job and fails to dominate either the stage or the music.
Of
course, from this intelligent singer there are fine moments, especially in
the great Verdian soliloquies, but much of his acting is of the
staggering-about variety. Perhaps he worries that if he is too still, no one
will notice him.
It hardly helps that his Desdemona, the wonderful
Italian soprano Maria Agresta, has an unusually full tone. She overwhelms
him in their duets and her great Act 4 scene, powerfully and poignantly
sung, confirms her as the star of the show.
As Iago, the evil engine
of Otello’s destruction, her compatriot Marco Vratogna — a late replacement
— gives a well-routined, honest performance.
He rather lacks
subtlety and in baritone terms is a Protti rather than a Gobbi, but he
effortlessly manipulates this wimp of an Otello.
I liked much of
Keith Warner’s production, although it is very sombre and the graffiti at
the end of Act 3 are vulgar miscalculations.
Boris Kudlicka’s sets
and Bruno Poet’s lighting give him the dreary ambience he presumably wants,
but some of Kaspar Glarner’s costumes provide brilliance and colour.
Magnificent contributions from chorus, orchestra, secondary singers and
conductor Antonio Pappano bring Verdi’s vibrant music constantly to the
fore, so you often barely notice the hole at the centre of the drama.
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