Follow
(MOVE BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE - VERDI GALLERY)
- Historical persons (HP) behind the opera characters
- Performers and collaborators of the first Premieres
- Performers most liked by Giuseppe Verdi and his wife Giuseppina Strepponi
- Greatest performers after Verdi's times
- Persons are sorted by roles and birth years.
- Please, add profiles only to the main page, "Verdi Gallery".
Otello
- Opera in 4 acts, Italian
- Libretto Arrigo Boito
- Based on the tragedy Othello, or the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare, Bard of Avon
- Time: The late 15th century. Place: A coastal city on the island of Cyprus.
The beginning of the opera, act 1, scene 1, The Tempest, design A. Bonamore.
- First performances in different countries:
- Italy 5 February 1887, World Premiere at Teatro alla Scala, Milan
- Mexico: 18 November 1887
- Russia: 8 December 1887, St. Petersburg
- Hungary: 8 December 1887, Budapest
- Czech Republic: 7 January 1888, Prague
- Germany: 31 January 1888, Hamburg
- Holland: 10 March 1888, Amsterdam
- Austria: 14 March 1888, Vienna
- United States: 16 April 1888, New York
- Argentina: 12 June 1888, Buenos Aires
- Cuba: 10 January 1889, Havana
- Portugal: 24 March 1889, Lisbon
- England: 5 July 1889, London
- Sweden: 27 May 1890, Stockholm
- Spain: 9 October 1890, Madrid
- USA 11 January 1892 New York, Metropolitan Opera House
- Poland: 3 October 1893, Warsaw
- Brazil: Summer 1894, Rio De Janeiro
- France: 12 October 1894, Paris
- Denmark: 20 April 1898, Copenhagen
- Croatia: 10 October 1899
- Austrailia: end of 1901, Melbourne
- Belgium: 22 February 1902, brussels
- Norway: 1921, Olso
- Bulgaria: 17 May 1922, Sofia
- Finland: 2 February 1923, Helsinki
- Israel: 27 April 1925, Jerusalem
- Estonia: 1929, Tallinn
- Romania: December 1937, Bucharest
Act II. Otello rages over Jago. Engraving.
Illustration from Le Monde illustre of the 1894 Paris premiere.
- Characters:
- Otello, a Moorish general, tenor
- HP Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud
- Francesco Innocenzo Tamagno sang in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887. /// Youtube "Esultate!" /// Entry & Death of Otello
- Italo Campanini
- Augusto Renato Brogi both Otello & Jago
- Jan Mieczysław Reszke
- Arvid Fredrik Ödmann
- Władysław Floriański
- Fernando De Lucia
- Angelo Angioletti
- Gino Martinez-Patti
- Ivan Vasiliyevitch Ershov
- Luigi Colazza
- Giovanni Peirani
- Erik Schmedes
- Florencio Constantino
- Antonio Paoli
- Enrico Caruso
- Leo Slezak
- Giovanni Zenatello
- Giovanni Martinelli
- Kipras Petrauskas
- Arnoldo Lindi
- Lauritz Melchior
- Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
- Jan Peerce
- Ramon Vinay
- Paolo Silveri (made an attempt as tenor in 1959)
- Mario Del Monaco
- Mario Lanza
- Giuseppe di Stefano
- Carlo Bergonzi
- Carlo Cossutta
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Plácido Domingo
- Peter Lindroos
- Desdemona, his wife, soprano
- Romilda Pantaleoni sang in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Adalgisa Gabbi
- Medea Maria Figner
- Hariclea Darclée
- Sigrid Taube Maria Fischhof
- Dame Nellie Melba
- Selma Kronold
- Eva Tetrazzini was the first American Desdemona
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Gemma Bellincioni
- Emma Eames
- Nadezhda Vrubel
- Elda Cavalieri
- Emilia Corsi
- Fausta Labia
- Luisa Tetrazzini
- Giuseppina Huguet
- Lina Pasini-Vitale
- Camilla Pasini
- Aino Ackté
- Maria Labia
- Geraldine Farrar
- Maja de Strozzi
- Hanna Granfelt
- Phyllis Eleanor Sjöström
- Gilda Dalla Rizza
- Dusolina Giannini
- Mafalda Favero
- Aino Sylvia Elenius-Urbano
- Maria Caniglia
- Aulikki Rautawaara
- Zinka Milanov
- Lina Bruna Rasa
- Renata Tebaldi
- Victoria de los Ángeles
- Maaria Eira
- Virginia Zeani
- Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM AC DBE
- Renata Scotto
- Montserrat Caballé
- Mirella Freni
- Júlia Várady
- Kiri Te Kanawa
- Cynthia Hansell-Bakic
- Aprile Millo
- Iago, Otello's ensign baritone
- Victor Maurel sang in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887 /// "Era la notte"
- Antonio Cotogni
- Bogomir Korsov
- Niels Juel Simonsen
- Augusto Renato Brogi both Otello & Jago
- Giuseppe Kaschmann
- Antonio Magini Coletti
- Mario Ancona
- Bohumil Benoni
- Giuseppe Pacini
- Francesco Maria Bonini
- Antonio Scotti
- Ferruccio Francesco Corradetti
- Eugenio Giraldoni
- Giuseppe De Luca
- Titta Ruffo
- Pasquale Amato
- Amleto Barbieri
- Carlo Galeffi
- Mate Jakov Čulić Dragun
- Luigi Montesanto
- Mario Carmelo Basiola
- Lawrence Mervil Tibbett
- Leonard Warren
- Gino Bechi
- Tito Gobbi
- Paolo Silveri
- Giuseppe Taddei
- Robert Merrill
- Georg Ots
- Ettore Bastianini
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
- Piero Cappuccilli
- Usko Viitanen
- Kari Nurmela
- Tom Gunnar Krause
- Renato Bruson
- Jorma Hynninen
- Ruggero Raimondi
- Leo Nucci
- Emilia, wife of Iago and maid of Desdemona, mezzo-soprano
- Cassio, Otello's captain, tenor
- Giovanni Paroli sang in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Gaetano Pini-Corsi
- Fiorello Giraud
- Carlo Cossutta
- Roderigo, a gentleman of Venice, tenor
- Lodovico, ambassador of the Venetian Republic, bass
- Francesco Navarrini sang in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Andres Perello de Segurola
- Fernando Corena
- Montano, former Governor of Cyprus, bass
- Heraldo, bass
- Otello, a Moorish general, tenor
- 2nd cello
- Arturo Toscanini played in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Costume designors:
- Alfredo Leonardo Edel, Colorno in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Set Designer:
- Carlo Ferrario in the first premiere
- Conductors:
- Franco Faccio conducted in the first premiere 5 Feb 1887
- Paul Taffanel conducted in the first French premiere in Paris
- Leopoldo Mugnone
- Cleofonte Campanini conducted in the first American premiere in New York
- Arturo Toscanini
- Tullio Serafin
- Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet
- Gabriele Santini
- Sir John Barbirolli, CH
- Fausto Cleva
- Herbert von Karajan
- Gianandrea Gavazzeni
- Carlos Kleiber
- Lorin Varencove Maazel
- Riccardo Muti
- James Lawrence Levine
- Gianluigi Gelmetti
- Stage directors:
- Herbert von Karajan
- Tito Gobbi
- Franco Zeffirelli (with Lorin Maazel, and 1986 film with Domingo, Maazel)
- August Everding (1975 at the Metropolitan)
- Otto Schenk (1965 for Austrian TV, Wiener Sängerknaben, Argeo Quadri cond.)
- Giancarlo Del Monaco (Bonn, Peking/Beijing, Lausanne, Montpellier, Nice, Rossini Festival Pesaro, Tenerife)
- Audience in the world premiere: