Verdi: Otello.(Sound Recording Review)

[] Frittoli, Rinaldi; Domingo, Nucci, Parodi; Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala, Muti. TDK DVD DVUS-OPOTEL (Naxos, dist.), 140 mins.

Placido Domingo's Otello is already available in at least four other commercial recordings. If this La Scala performance doesn't add to our understanding of the role or the tenor--by this point he had been singing Otello for twenty-five years--it was perhaps no longer possible to deepen one of the most famous operatic characterizations of our day. Moreover, the two previous video versions are unsatisfactory: Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film is lip-synched (not well) and barbarically cut, while the severe 1992 Covent Garden production has not won many fans.

Opening the 2001 Scala season, Domingo gives the performance of a consummate professional. He paces himself admirably through the treacherous Act II (a heavy evening's work in itself), leading to a really searing Act III. He shows how a glance or a sudden gesture can make it appear that he is pouring out more sound than he really is, and he still can command the stage, alone, while lying on the floor. He skirts the top B in his entrance, but for this occasion--said to be his last appearance in the role--he does not use the transposition in Act 11 he had favored in live performances by this point. The "Si, pel ciel" duet needs to go rather fast, but it is still heart-in-the-throat exciting. Can anyone who has sung the role as much as he did ever have done it so well?

Riccardo Muti's conducting is ...