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Salzburg, 'Otello'
Jane Boutwell, Opera News, August 1996

As head of the Salzburg Easter Festival and conductor of a passionate, richly detailed Otello, Claudio Abbado once again demonstrated his ability to sabotage a great musical evening with clumsy staging and unattractive sets. After last year's sports-stadium Elektra, the festival director imported Ermanno Olmi, an Italian director of documentary films, and his designer, Lucio Fanti, who presented Renaissance Cyprus as a large cubist rock. Despite a stellar cast, the stage action never measured up to the singing.

In Act I, Fanti's massive unit set seemed to represent the top of a decaying castle, a light-blue cyclorama stretched across the stage behind it, and a wall with a door in the center stood at the top. On either side of this clutter of falling rocks were steep, curved staircases that tested the athletic ability of the cast. For Act II the central rocks were replaced by a shallow cave and the curving stairs were straightened. In Act III the stairs were pushed together for the entrance of the Venetian ambassador; for Act IV they parted again to reveal a claustrophobic bedchamber with red-and-gold walls and a small square bed. Chorus and principals wore monochromatic earth tones that blended into the setting, though there was an occasional flash of color -- in Desdemona's light-blue satin court dress and the red robes of some men in the Venetian delegation.

The evening began with the announcement that Plбcido Domingo, who had sung two previous Otellos in the same week, would appear despite a slight indisposition. There was an unscheduled intermission between Acts I and II, but this seasoned Otello managed to finish the taxing role with his voice intact. Domingo cannily coping with vocal problems is in many ways a more interesting singer than Domingo at the top of his form. Though he omitted the high note in "Esultate!," the voice, noticeably weak in the duet that ends Act II, conveyed with anguished intensity the Moor's fatal descent into murderous frenzy. Helped by a sympathetic, responsive Abbado, Domingo finished the evening with a poignant farewell to life that left the audience cheering.

Portraying his first Iago, Ruggero Raimondi sketched a rough, embittered soldier, envious of his superiors and just possibly interested in Desdemona. His cavernous bass coped well enough with the high, soft passages, but overall he lacked Machiavellean cunning. Barbara Frittoli's limpid lyric soprano offered a perfect match for Desdemona's trusting nature; her Willow Song was heartbreaking, her pianissimo at the end of the prayer effortlessly ethereal. Pierre Lefиbvre and Vincent Ombueno displayed bright, well-focused lyric tenors as Roderigo and Cassio, Giacomo Prestia a sonorous bass as Lodovico.

Despite a superb cast, Verdi's characters never interacted with one another sufficiently to produce the dramatic tension that animates a great performance. Olmi presented isolated individuals and a chorus (combining forces from the Vienna Opera, the Bratislava Philharmonic and the South Tyrol children's choir) that moved with mechanical rigidity. Desdemona collected no flowers from the children, and Iago sang his demonic "Credo" while looking into a hand mirror.

Abbado used a revised ending, composed by Verdi in 1894 for the Paris Opera, for the big Act III ensemble. Though the new music emphasized the dialogue between Otello and Iago -- a dialogue that usually is covered by Desdemona's voice in the ensemble -- there seemed little difference between this version and the familiar one. The ballet music that Verdi wrote at the same time was not included.

Abbado and the Berliners emphasized the dynamic range of the score, together with a richness of tonal color that was not reflected onstage. Inner instrumental voices came through clearly in the quieter moments, and complex ensembles were handled with masterly precision. A pity that Abbado's sensitive, thoughtful reading did not receive the production it deserved.