FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PARIS.(Review)

Much interest centered on the run of concert performances at the Chatelet of Verdi's Otello, featuring Jose Cura's first appearance in the title role in France. The orchestra spilled into the auditorium, while principal singers and the excellent chorus (trained by Norbert Balatsch) performed on a raised platform behind the instrumentalists. Although this was billed as a concert performance, the pretentiously named "mise en espace" (literally "putting into space," previously known as semi-staging) by Daniele Abbado was vastly more effective than many a misguided production. No doubt the physical glamour of the principals helped.

Myung-Whun Chung's tightly conducted performance (with the Orchestre Philharmonique) made an overwhelming initial impact. Rarely has the Shakespearean storm raged with such exciting effect, and throughout the evening, the conductor was responsive to every orchestral nuance of the mature Verdi; details which the positioning of the orchestra made both visually and aurally more evident than in either a staged performance or a traditional concert performance. The beauty of the cor anglais solo in the last act must be singled out, as well as the wonderfully played double-bass passage, which announces the murderous Otello's arrival in Desdemona's bedchamber. Cura gave notice from his initial entrance that he is a serious contender for greatness in this role of roles. He sang his "Esultate!" with disconcerting ease, but anyone expecting the chiseled, palatal sound of a Martinelli will have been disappointed by the darkened vowels and baritonal quality of Curds voice. The love duet brought some nice phrasing from the tenor, who spectacularly took the lines "A questa tua preghiera `Amen' risponda la celeste schiera" in one breath, but by now all eyes and ears were on the Desdemona of Karita Mattila.

In her best-sung performance in Paris in recent years, the Finnish soprano melted every heart but Otello's. In his writings, Verdi usually complained about the lack of dramatic commitment of performers, but for Desdemona he made an exception, claiming the best performance would always be achieved by the artist who sang the most beautifully. Mattila took this advice to heart, and although the basic sound is far from an Italian spinto, the truthfulness of the phrasing, the perfectly judged soft singing and the power to ride the big Act III ensemble made this a classy Nordic Desdemona. Her artistic integrity brought to mind Lehmann or Lemnitz in this repertoire, climaxing in a luminously still performance of the willow song and ensuing Ave Maria, comforted by the strongly sung and stoically acted Emilia of Enkelejda Shkosa.

The Iago of Anthony Michaels-Moore lavished on the role a suggestively evil mezza voce and made a genuine effort to follow the composer's subtle accenting and markings in the dream monologue. This highly musical British baritone, despite a self-conscious effort to be Italianate, lacked the visceral excitement of an Italian Verdi baritone. (Mercifully, he eschewed crazed laughter at the end of the "Credo.") The opening of the Act II duet found Cura's Otello winning out in terms of baritone color, ...