From around the world: Orange.(International ... Otello by Giuseppe Verdi)(Opera Review)

As at the other principal French summer music festivals, strike action by part-time theater workers cast a shadow over the 2003 Choregies d'Orange. The unions involved were reluctant to cancel this particular festival, believing that to do so would play into the hands of the town's far-right administration, but on July 15, as the audience filed past riot police and militant demonstrators for a performance of Verdi's Otello (which was televised), the magical energy of the ancient Roman arena seemed to ebb. Before conductor Evelino Pido could begin the opera, a representative of the strikers addressed the audience, but she was shouted down by members of the audience (some 10,000 spectators). Verdi's opening storm scene was inevitably undermined by such goings-on. The combined choruses of Toulouse, Tours and Avignon sounded muted and imprecise, and Pido's baton rarely seemed to reach to all corners of the stage or the Orchestre National de France.

Director Nicolas Joel's simple but uninspiring production featured three giant cranes spread across the stage; this made an impressive portside setting for the outdoor acts but undercut the intimate interior scenes. The opera's claustrophohic paranoia is particularly hard to establish in an open-air performance (Verdi worded that the stage of La Scala was too big for his domestic tragedy), and the first half resolutely refused to catch fire until the entrance of the radiant Desdemona, Tamar Iveri, displaying one of the most exciting voices to be heard in this repertoire for a while. Though her middle register carries insufficient weight, the Georgian soprano possesses a firmness of tone and a glowing ease above the staff that brought a welcome touch of vocal glamour to the evening. Tenor Vladimir Galouzine proved again that being a first-rate Gherman in The Queen of Spades does not guarantee success as Verdi's Moor. His "Esultate!" was impressively baritonal, but his overweighted, bombastic style grew ...