Otello

I don't understand Italian, singing or spoken, and I couldn't follow the subtitles. It might be great for opera fans, but it was all lost on me.

I am a fan of Placido Domingo in the sense that I admire him for his vast repertoire and lengthy career. That being said, this is one of the best movie versions of this opera around. Domingo is everything expected in this role. His superb singing and masculine physique are a perfect match. As for Katia's Desdemona, she is a great singer and beautiful woman (for an opera singer, of course). Justino Diaz's Iago is as evil and vile as Shakespeare wrote of him. The music along with actually shooting in Europe make a wonderfully complete picture for this masterpiece. Even the opening sequence is visual, unlike the usual staged productions. Real combat, emotion and staging are quite effective.

So seldom does everything come to-gether so perfectly. Verdi's masterpiece. Zeferelli's genius. Domingo's voice and those of a superb cast. I had just seen an excellent stage production of Otello last week and pulled out this tape to watch with a friend and again savour this wonderful opera. Nobody should have such sublime pleasure twice in one week. Powerful, Wonderful, Awesome. Magnificent. Why why why do people listen to rock and to rap when this music is available? A raptuous ten!

This is easily one of Franco Zeffirelli's better opera films. The cinematography is excellent, perfectly capturing the beautiful costumes and locations used here. A chief example of beauty was Desdemona lying on the bed all pure, as white as snow, as is said in the Shakespeare play. The subtitles are also very easy to read, and the plot while shortened is faithful to the play and to the opera's libretto. The music is just superlative. Verdi is without doubt up there with Puccini as the finest Italian opera composer, composing masterpieces such as La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Aida, and Otello based on Shakespeare's play deserves to be up there with them. So many highlights to choose from, there is Exultate, there are a couple of beautiful choruses and the riveting revenge duet between Otello and Iago, but my favourite has to be Desdemona's beautiful but haunting Willow Song(only in excerpt form here), that can give you goosebumps, because the repeated word Salce is quite hypnotic and foreboding. As for the singing, what can I say, fantastic. Placido Domingo was just brilliant, yes in the play, Othello is supposed to be black, I am trying to avoid being racist here, but Domingo is such a versatile talented singer, with a phenomenal voice, and a stage presence that does make Pavarotti inferior in comparison, it is forgiven. Katia Ricciarelli looked beautiful as the tragic Desdemona, and her voice was like an angel, in one word stunning. And Justino Diaz is very convincing as the hissable villain Iago, especially in the blasphemous but chilling Credo, who manipulates Otello into believing that Desdemona is unfaithful in quite an entertaining way. Overall, a very well done film adaptation of Verdi's opera. Bravo Zeffirelli! 10/10 Bethany Cox

The very beginning of OTELLO with everything so vastly bigger than reality sets the tone for our expectations. Some are disappointed, others are surprised.

It seems, having found out Franco Zeffirelli's entire filmography, that the key movie which truly delivers the director's masterful eye for details as well as the desirable faithfulness in adapting the classical source to the screen is TRAVIATA with Placido Domingo and Teresa Stratas. There, you do not have to be particularly fond of opera to love it. Indeed, echoing Vincent Canby's words of September 1986, in TRAVIATA "opera and film are effortlessly made to seem one." OTELLO, made 5 years later with the great tenor in the lead, appears to be a slightly different case in which aesthetic beauty is combined with classic tragedy but the manner is ultimately individual.

The 2013 Year of Verdi may constitute a wonderful opportunity to broaden one's knowledge of this great composer, the genius of his time. However, many viewers who have seen Franco Zeffirelli's OTELLO will probably agree with the New York Times reviewer, Vincent Canby, that, unlike TRAVIATA, the movie rather "ornaments" the original than "reveals" it. Therefore, from the very opening shot with its grandeur and the majestic display of elaborate visuals rather than Verdi's storm music (which appears to be in the shadow of spectacle), OTELLO is foremost an expression of the director's style.

Yes, it is more Zeffirelli than Verdi in its divided pieces, some chaotic continuity, dreamlike photography by the director's mainstay, Ennio Guarnieri, aestheticism and the vital, engrossing and a little terrifying conclusion. At certain moments, visuals and symbols appear to be supplied with an almost spiritual piety. Such care is being handled, such effort being put to everything. Although it may consist of certain liberties with the original source, nothing seems to stand in the way towards leaving the viewer dazzled at the creative use of images, dazzling costumes, breathtaking colors, camera angles and the cast who make it all beautifully acted and sung. They allow you to search into their souls. Yes, they will completely captivate you.

Of course, the nature of this movie, opera, makes the performances considerably overacted. Viewers who are not used to such pompous execution of the sung lines may feel at odds with the over-dramatized moments. Yet, Zeffirelli, as in many (of not all) of his other movies supplies us with beautiful characters whose looks alone somehow make them easily identified with and likable. The pairing of Placido Domingo as Otello and Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona rewards us all. By splendid combination of emotional resonance and the dramatic tensions, they deliver exceptionally memorable moments, in particular their wedding night which is a true visual poetry on screen. Domingo beautifully highlights the typical way of a tragic hero - from victory to tragedy, from pride to humiliation, from being hailed to being doomed. Ricciarelli is a delicate dove, an innocent victim, a truly beautiful creature born under evil star. She is incredible in the scene of the prayer at the shroud of Madonna. Piety, subtlety and dignity reach exquisite harmony and surprising balance. Yet, however they differ, as it is in the classical tragedy, they both fall victims of evil scheme, of the hero's evil genius.

One line says: "Beware of jealousy!" This, unfortunately, did not apply to "Beware of an evil man!" Justino Diaz portrays Jago, a malicious man who believes in a god of vengeance...that is his creed. His demonic laughter allures all major human emotions. It is him who plants the seeds of doubt about Desdemona and her alleged lover, Cassio (Urbano Barberini) and his poison really works in the hero's mind. In one of the most powerful scenes of the movie, Jago stands at the cross in a typical Zeffirelli imagery (compare to the film about saint Francis) and, on the verge of blasphemy, he sings out in pride and vanity "Heaven is an idle tale" That scene has its continuation at Otello's oath. Zeffirelli delivers a splendid performance from Justino Diaz, the most memorable character/villain of the movie.

From the supporting cast, a mention must be made of Urbano Barberini. Here, the classical idea of beauty, sort of Michelangelo's David is evoked, in particular, at the additional scene (which Canby relates to as 'gross interruption') when Cassio is showed succumbed to the wild pleasures of erotic dreams about Desdemona. Barberini evokes a certain aspect of an innocent young man so many times depicted by Zeffirelli with its pinnacle in ROMEO AND JULIET.

With the marvelous display of visuals, aesthetic splendor and the director's standard hallmarks, Zeffirelli has never and will never win the hearts of those who are bound to criticize him. Yet, OTELLO may be forgiven its liberal treatments of the classical source and may be considered a significant film by those seeking high art on screen.