Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Arts and Culture

Verdi's Otello heightens the melodrama of Shakespeare's tragedy Art: Corrie Jackson

The Canadian Opera Company (COC) concluded their winter season performances with Giuseppi Verdi's Otello. Based on Shakespeare's tragedy, the opera succeeds in heightening all the melodrama of the play while minimizing its complexities in exploring the nature of greed, deception, and obsession. However, the libretto for Verdi's opera follows the main plotline: the tragic fall of Othello, a general and devoted husband to Desdemona, due to the scheming and manipulation of his envious lieutenant, Iago.

Otello opens with a storm, as Othello returns to Cyprus after defeating the Turks. Anyone familiar with Shakespeare knows that a storm is never a good sign - a mark of upcoming chaos. However, the audience was unaware that this storm also, inadvertently, anticipated the staging and most of the performances. This was unfortunate for Clifton Forbis, who played Othello. Forbis' vocal range allowed for a masterful portrayal of Othello, a complex protagonist who is both a victim and agent with hubristic qualities. At times, however, Forbis' performance was engulfed by jarring staging accompanied by mediocre vocal and theatrical performances by Tiziana Caruso as Desdemona and Scott Hendricks as Iago.

In the opening scene of Otello, Desdemona clings to jagged rocks, her white gown billowing in the rising winds of a storm. These visual elements convey dramatic irony; the audience is aware of Desdemona's pending doom as she waits to greet her husband. However, there is no continuity between the opening scene and Desdemona's murder. The lack of continuity makes it difficult to empathize when Desdemona, who embodies innocence and falls victim to the brutality and greed of others, dies. Before Desdemona dies, she sings the famous aria Piangea cantando. This is the first time Desdemona's voice is heard independently from Otehllo's. What should have been a dramatically and emotionally layered scene was only one dimensional. There was no dynamism in Caruso's vocal performance; while loud is always impressive it is not an emotion. Desdemona's aria is set as she prepares for bed. In the bedroom setting there are jagged rocks similar to those she gripped in the opening scene. However, the rocks are ignored. The lack of interaction with the props, which are clearly meant to reflect the quagmire in which most of the characters find themselves, leaves too much freedom for interpretation. Perhaps the rocks in the bedroom are the elephant-in-the-room: Othello's and Desdemona's marriage is "on the rocks." The pun negates any sense of tragedy.

Another missed opportunity in regard to character and staging was Iago. Iago is a challenging role to perform because he is both a character and a metaphor - the serpent in the Garden. Iago is motivated by jealousy, as when Otello makes Cassio (performed by Emanuele D'Aquana) lieutenant instead of him, and reflects the jealousy and selfish impulses in others. Iago is a character everyone loves to hate. Unfortunately, Hendrick's portrayal of Iago was not convincing. Hendrick failed to convey an essential element that makes Iago's villainy believable: not only is Iago evil, he is arrogant about being evil.

A key feature of Iago's villainy is his ability to become the puppet master when others are vulnerable. This element of Iago's character is lost in one of the first and most jarring scenes of the production. Upon returning triumphant to Cyprus, the soldiers partake in drunken frivolity. Iago encourages Cassio to drink beyond his limit, leading Cassio to wound a former governor and be demoted. This moment anticipates the later manipulation and devastation of Othello, but its significance is overthrown as the chorus partakes in a collective pelvic thrust. An instance meant to show the force of Iago's goading on a macro-level is thrown off balance by ill-timed humour. The encouragement of Cassio's sexual high jinx is reminiscent of the Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but not nearly as entertaining.

The concluding act of Otello was also thrown off-balance, but this time by unintentional humour. Othello has murdered Desdemona. As Emilia (performed by Jamie Barton), Desdemona's lady-in-waiting, reveals Iago's deception to Othello the audience is not left with any sense of Othello's devastating realization that his jealousy killed Desdemona's virtue. Instead, the audience is left with serious moments transformed to border-line farce. For example, from timing and Barton's delivery, all the audience thinks is "Too little too late." Another moment, which invited the muffled sound of suppressed chuckles, was during Othello's aria. He has realized the severity of his actions, deciding on suicide. The gravity of the scene is interrupted when Desdemona suddenly sits up with a surprising vitality for someone who has been dead for most of the aria. It is difficult to focus on Othello's tragedy, revelation without redemption, when Desdemona sings about how she is innocent and dying just in case that fact, prevalent through the whole opera, managed to somehow elude the audience.

Some of the poor staging and direction was so jarring it either interrupted the flow of what should have been a dramatically intense performances, like that of Forbis, or overlooked dramatic possibilities and continuities. Unfortunately, the COC production of Otello can only be characterized as a production of unmet potential.

The COC will be starting fresh in the spring with The Flying Dutchman, Maria Stuarda, and Idomeneo. For more information visit the COC website at www.coc.ca

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