After the première of Aida, the 58-year-old Giuseppe Verdi decided that he would retire forever from writing operas. Giulio Ricordi and Arrigo Boito, however, had a subject that the Shakespeare-loving composer was unable to resist. Thus commenced the seven-year-long "chocolate project”, resulting in Milan's La Scala presenting the first new Verdi opera in 15 years: Otello. It was an enormous success.
With his penultimate opera, the uncrowned king (or one of them, at least) of the Italian opera literature brought his artistic output into a new phase. Although his early works still bore the hallmarks of early 19th century opera, both Rigoletto (1851) and La traviata (1853) already bore witness to the fact that Verdi was pushing at the boundaries of the form; if one compares Aida (1871) with Otello (1887), then the difference becomes completely apparent.
With Otello, the composer breaks with the customary aria-ensemble or aria-recitative format. Each dramatic moment in the music leads to the next; incredible dramatic and emotional changes depict the drama before us. In Verdi's shocking music, the tragedy of the "black” protagonist unfolds with astonishing sensitivity on the tempestuous island of the conscious and unconscious.

Presented by: Hungarian State Opera