January 29, 2005
The Moor at the Opera
At a practically last-minute tip-off from a friend, I went to see Otello[1] at the National Opera and Ballet - Sofia yesterday. It was great. No, it was amazing!
Part of the reason I went was to see (and hear, most definitely hear!) Radostina Nikolaeva as Desdemona[2] and Niko Isakov as Iago, both mentioned here already for their performance in Carmen some time ago. It turned out that the lead singer - Kostadin Andreev as Otello - was not half bad either ;) The love duet with Desdemona in Act I, the "by the dark, murderous sea" duet with Iago in Act II, the "swear and damn yourself" lovers' quarrel in Act III, the death scene in Act IV... all those definitely struck a chord in more than one soul in the audience. And then, of course, Iago's "cruel God", Desdemona's "Willow"... I don't know, I'm just lost for words - you had to be there!
All in all, these four hours seem to have been the most worthwhile four hours of this week; thanks, Tony, for the tip-off!
[1] And for the benefit of our English-speaking readers, no, this is not a typo - although Shakespeare's drama is called Othello, Giuseppe Verdi was Italian, and Italian was pretty much the official language of the opera at the time and ever since, so Otello it is.
[2] Unfortunately, the National Opera's gallery does not have photos from Otello performances, so those are still from Carmen and others.
Posted by roam at January 29, 2005 12:44 PM
