Otello, one of Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpieces, is Teatru Astra’s choice this year to kick off the next theatre season in October, as it opens the 12th edition of Festival Mediterranea, the programme of which is currently being finalised.

A tangle of love, passion, hatred, jealousy, deceit, innocence and death

This year being the 200th anniversary of the famous composer’s birth, the Astra’s managing committee could not but opt for one of the cavalli di battaglia of the celebrated genius, which is a favourite with local audiences.

The staging of this opera, with a top-notch cast that is currently being contracted, marks a bitter-sweet return to the Astra, as this work was the last production held at the theatre a few days before the stage and auditorium were severely damaged in a fire in 2003.

As is now customary at Teatru Astra, high-quality artistes of international standing will be singing the main and challenging parts as the production will bring together excellent local and foreign talent, including professional singers of repute who will be singing for the first time in Malta.

The theatre will soon announce the names of the main cast as contracts are currently being finalised, with one of the world’s current top Moors and, separately, one of the most convincing Iagos around.

Otello marks yet another remarkable work by Verdi based on a Shakespeare play, subsequent to his Macbeth, and composed after the composer had declared his intentions to retire permanently following the resounding success of his Aida.

Otello was first performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1887, and has been a worldwide hit ever since. In Malta, it was first performed at the Teatro Reale in Valletta on March 30, 1897, just 10 years after its première.

The four-act opera takes the audience back to the end of the 15th century in a tangle of love, passion, hatred, jealousy, deceit, innocence and, inevitably, death.

With the omission of the First Act of the Shakespeare play, Arrigo Boito’s libretto is very loyal to the Bard’s plot, albeit boiled down to the essential elements of the plot, while the music is considered to be among Verdi’s most beautiful and expressive, with some of the composer’s richest characterisations.

The opera is deemed as one of the most demanding among those currently performed regularly worldwide, equally for the baritone as for the infamously difficult tenor role. In fact, Verdi had initially considered the part of Iago as being the main role.

It is not a walk in the park for the soprano either, whose voice must match in strength and emotional intensity that of the tenor and of the baritone.

Otello will be staged on October 24 and 26 at Teatru Astra, Victoria.

Booking is currently open by contacting the festival’s helpdesk on 2155 0985 or by e-mail to bookings@mediterranea.com.mt.

www.mediterranea.com.mt