Verdi: Otello.(Video Recording Review)

[] Magee, Kammerloher; Franz, Alexeyev, Rugamer, Youn, Schmidt, Wolf, Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim. ArtHaus Musik DVD 100 347 (Naxos, dist.), 157 mins.

Here we go again. People who live in glass houses--especially modern glass houses that rotate, glass homes with lots of grids, spiral staircases, swimming pools and magic fire--shouldn't be playing Otella. Unfortunately, no one seems have told that to director Jurgen Flimm and his designing accomplice George Tsypin.

Together, these trendy innovators have managed to trivialize Verdi's Shakespearean tragedy in a vain attempt to modernize it. Their oh-so-clever and oh-so-self-conscious obfuscation, created two years ago for the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, brims with silly ideas. It's as if Verdi had written Dames at Sea.

The inaction takes place in a three-tiered ship-like unit. All the world's a cage. Opera's wildest storm is reduced to a few flashing lights. Much of the choral movement is frozen. Most of the men sport modern naval uniforms, though Iago's vested suit marks the villain as a Jack Rance impersonator. Cassio prefers jeans. During her crucial confrontation with the now-quasi Moor, the heroine is served a tropical drink with a cute little umbrella decorating the straw. Iago beams as he sings his "Credo" to the balcony, then punctuates the cadence with a thumbs-up victory-signal. Plastic ...