# Kaufmann Otello Debut



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/25/otello-review-royal-opera-jonas-kaufmann

I was very curious to see how this would go. These roles like Otello, Tristan, & Siegfried could really wreck Mr. Kaufmann. It sounds like he was a bit tentative on opening night, but hopefully that is just opening night jitters that will go away as he warms to the role.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/25/otello-review-royal-opera-jonas-kaufmann
> 
> I was very curious to see how this would go. These roles like Otello, Tristan, & Siegfried could really wreck Mr. Kaufmann. It sounds like he was a bit tentative on opening night, but hopefully that is just opening night jitters that will go away as he warms to the role.


I do still hope the did recorded it for DVD, as seen it in real is almost impossible.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

It's being shown live in cinemas on Wed 28th here in the UK.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

We got lucky and attended opening night which was hotter than hades in Row K of the Balcony. Sound can be a little mussy that far up, so maybe this ‘review’ should be treated with a note of caution.

My impression was that Kaufmann was just a little underpowered particularly in his entry which just did not ring out. His portrayal was of a modern Otello (nervous ticks and leg twitches included), certainly not a 'great man' falling from heights. But consequently he was hard to sympathise with. His rage was also underpowered but some of the softer singing was truly beautiful.

For the Drama we needed a threatening Iago. Marco Vratogna was a late substitution and not really dark enough of voice. 

It’s possible that the two characters were more closely matched in this production, somehow two sides of the same personality and there was the drama, but if so such subtleties didn't project upto where I was. The producer had Iago centre stage at the beginning and Otello at Curtain up after the interval, as if each part was driven by the character on stage holding a mask.


AS Desdemona Maria Agresta radiantly carried up to us with glorious waves of sound but again it was hard to know how accurately she was singing. Hers was the most satisfactory performance. 

Also Papano and the Orchestra seemed to be hold back a little perhaps to save someone’s voice? 


A good production that went off the rails with graffiti, a broken lion and a modern hotel room for the final act. Presumably the later to remind the audience that this Opera is still relevant today (Ho Hum).

All in all it was good, but not what it might have been and not what the interval darlings were bleating about.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I have my tickets for a theater near me in July. I absolutely cannot wait. I have said all along when I first saw him live at the Met as Alfredo in Traviata that the right place for him to be was Otello.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Belowpar said:


> We got lucky and attended opening night which was hotter than hades in Row K of the Balcony. Sound can be a little mussy that far up, so maybe this 'review' should be treated with a note of caution.
> 
> My impression was that Kaufmann was just a little underpowered particularly in his entry which just did not ring out. His portrayal was of a modern Otello (nervous ticks and leg twitches included), certainly not a 'great man' falling from heights. But consequently he was hard to sympathise with. His rage was also underpowered but some of the softer singing was truly beautiful.
> 
> ...


Thanks for this .
Did you see recording equipment by any chance?


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Pugg I can't be sure but I've been told that every performance gets recorded. There are 'things' suspiciously like microphones (although they could be climate control monitors) suspended from the ceiling.

Tomorrow night is filmed.
http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/otello-by-keith-warner
From memory on those nights you can clearly see microphones suspended above the proscenium.

So the real answer is …sorry I don't really know.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

If anyone has a satellite dish, the "free to air" signal for tonight's performance is coming through now on Thor at .8W (11471 13311 V) and Eutelsat at 5W (11594 13311 H)


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Wow, I was just wondering today when Kaufman was going to sing Otello! I remember how stunned I was by his recording of the Act III aria when I first heard it a couple years ago:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

It's been confirmed, Sony did record the opera for DVD release in December.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Posted this in another place but this seems more appropriate perhaps so excuse the repost.

Just seen the ROH Otello with Kauffmann. Pretty good I thought.
Production had its quirks but did not get in the way with Iago being the chief protagonist and manipulator takng centre stage from beginnng.
Thought the opening storm wasn't quite together but may have been the effect of seeing a broadcast not being in theatre itself.
I thought all the principlals acquitted themselves well. Of course, Kauffmann was the 'name' and his performance rang out thrillingly in places although he has yet to grow into the role a la Domngo. 
My chief irritation wax the politically correct but artistically ridiculous decision not to use blackface makeup. This is a story about a noble black man brought down by an evil white schemer. Otello is the outsider because of the colour of his skn. Here it looked as if Lhengrin had strayed into Otello. I do wish we could get beyond this hangup audit weakens the dramatic impact of the plot as it is, at least partly, about racism. 
Pappano's conducted with his usual enthusiasm. All in all a satisfying night out with the star being Verdi's wondrous score.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DavidA said:


> My chief irritation wax the politically correct but artistically ridiculous decision not to use blackface makeup. This is a story about a noble black man brought down by an evil white schemer. Otello is the outsider because of the colour of his skn. Here it looked as if Lhengrin had strayed into Otello. I do wish we could get beyond this hangup audit weakens the dramatic impact of the plot as it is, at least partly, about racism.


I agree. It's sad when misguided political sensitivity reaches a level where a light-skinned actor cannot be made up as a dark-skinned character for fear of offending someone or evoking associations with minstrel shows. I am simply not going to believe that, say, Birgit Nilsson's Aida is an Ethiopian slave girl if I'm looking at an alabaster-skinned Viking surrounded by pyramids. Conversely, I have never heard of any black geishas, and if Leontyne Price wants me to believe that she's Butterfly she'd better be well pancaked and powdered! I'm not sure that racism as such is a significant undercurrent in Otello - did Boito or Verdi ever mention it? - but Otello's foreignness, the fact that he's culturally and/or temperamentally an alien, is clearly a part of the situation. Kaufmann is a very Latin-looking German, and in this production, if photos are reliable, he looks more authentically Italian than the rest of the cast. That turns things oddly upside down.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I have never heard of any black geishas, and if Leontyne Price wants me to believe that she's Butterfly she'd better be well pancaked and powdered!


I don´t feel offended by seeing Price or any other dark skinned singer in make up to look light skinned so it is just ridiculous that anyone should be offended by Kaufmann in black face.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I agree, the Boito/Verdi _Otello_ downplays the racism aspect in Shakespeare's _Othello_. It is more about Otello as an outsider. But they do not remove it entirely. There are a few references to a dusky complexion and such (or so translated here), and "This black man has a graveyard air, a sightless shadow sits within of death and terror made!"

And many people prefer to avoid black-face (and the like) not just because it invokes minstrel shows, but because it is, and has been, used for much the same purpose.

Shakespeare wrote Othello and intended the character to be played by a white man because he lived in a time and place where it was illegal for black men to be on stage (and would be for another 100 years). We don't need to attribute any special racism to Shakespeare, but the practice of blacking-up was used because the system was racist.

Similarly, Verdi's Otello was premiered with a white singer blacked-up for the title role because La Scala (and other opera houses) didn't have black singers. The first black singer at La Scala wouldn't be for another 66 years. (No black singers appear with any major opera company until the 1920s). Again, blacking-up was not about mockery, but it was the result of systemic racism.

Using blackface to actively mock and belittle is certainly worse than making do within a racist system (as Verdi and Shakespeare did), but neither are great. And that racist system is less powerful now but it is by no means gone.

In this time I certainly consider using blackface at all to be have changed to being, by itself, active mockery and belittlement. A reminder not just of minstrelsy but also of times when due to racist laws - or just plain racist people in charge - blacks were not allowed on stage.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Also, Birgit Nilsson was never convincingly black as Aida. Leontyne Price was never convincingly Japanese, just as she was never convincingly 15 years old (well, except for when she was actually a teenager, well before she was singing Butterfly).

I watch video of Domingo as Otello and he doesn't look black, he looks embarrassing.





He sounds fantastic, of course, so people put up with the unbelievability of his blackface, why are we not able to put up with the unbelievability of his natural face? Strong costuming (and lighting, blocking, etc.) choices can make it clear who he and everybody else is, and their relationships.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

mountmccabe said:


> I agree, the Boito/Verdi _Otello_ downplays the racism aspect in Shakespeare's _Othello_. It is more about Otello as an outsider. But they do not remove it entirely. There are a few references to a dusky complexion and such (or so translated here), and "This black man has a graveyard air, a sightless shadow sits within of death and terror made!"
> 
> And many people prefer to avoid black-face (and the like) not just because it invokes minstrel shows, but because it is, and has been, used for much the same purpose.
> 
> ...


The point about black men 'not being allowed on stage' is irrelevant today as black men are - thankfully - welcome on stage. There are, however, few black tenors (they tend to be baritones or basses) and less who can manage Otello. I just cannot see why applying some dark make-up is unacceptable. After all, this guy is an actor and the word in Greek means 'mask'. Obviously we are not talking about the black and white minstrels but serious acting. And should a singer be made up to look Japanese in Butterfly? Or the Mikado in G&S? Or is it wrong for Falstaff to be padded as it might offend fat people? The list is endless of the PC objections that can be made. This is acting for goodness sake not real life!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> Also, Birgit Nilsson was never convincingly black as Aida. Leontyne Price was never convincingly Japanese, just as she was never convincingly 15 years old (well, except for when she was actually a teenager, well before she was singing Butterfly).
> 
> I watch video of Domingo as Otello and he doesn't look black, he looks embarrassing.
> 
> ...


I've seen Domingo's Otello and found nothing embarrassing about the way he looked.

To me it's a question of how much we think Otello's racial and ethnic identity matters to the story, and how true to its origins we want a production to be. But it isn't even clear what that identity is. Both Shakespeare and his sources indicate that Othello is "Moorish," a rather generic term for any of various dark-complected North African peoples. "Moorish" doesn't necessarily imply "black" as we may think of the term at present; a "Moor" is at least as likely to be Arab as *******. To object to a little stage makeup as racist is, at the very least, to overlook this fact.

But what if Otello _is_ a Negro? Look at Olivier's Othello, a probably over-the-top but undeniably brilliant achievement which some have criticized as racial stereotyping. Would we rather this extraordinarily creative actor came onstage looking like good old Larry in a Renaissance getup and acting like a standard-issue military officer? His Othello's sensual, passionate, volatile temperament, and the distinct _foreignness_ of his appearance and behavior, stand out in bold relief amid his European surroundings, contrasting wonderfully with Maggie Smith's refined, alabaster-skinned Desdemona, helping us understand why she would have found a "blackamoor" so fascinating as to marry him in secret, and providing a key to the source of the alienation and emotional insecurity which make Othello so vulnerable to the doubt Iago plants in his mind. It might even help to explain the frightening intensity of Iago's hatred. Seen this way, the portrayal of Othello as black, and the play/opera as a whole, are the very opposite of racist.

In general, I think it's wrong to try to refashion and distort our artistic heritage according to the political sensitivities of various groups. Prejudices and stereotypes about "others" - racial, religious, sexual, gendered - have always existed. We should be able to look levelly at their expressions in the culture over the centuries and, by doing so, gain understanding. Art may even be one of our best sources of such understanding.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

While I might get uncomfortable if, today, a white actor in a _play_ were made up to look Asian or black, the fact that it's _opera_ makes the situation different, at least to my mind. In opera, roles are cast first and foremost on the basis of vocal type. I read an article where the author (who seemed pretty ignorant about opera) suggested that a black tenor, and not Mr. Kaufmann, should have been cast as Otello. But, as DavidA pointed out, there are relatively few black tenors around -- and there few tenors of _any_ race who can manage to sing Otello. So, in opera, it's simply not possible always to cast Otello or Cio-Cio-San with "race-appropriate" singers. Hence the need for stage makeup and audience imagination.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> While I might get uncomfortable if, today, a white actor in a _play_ were made up to look Asian or black, the fact that it's _opera_ makes the situation different, at least to my mind.


The same goes for film vs. opera. I assume there's no shortage of fine actors of all racial types, and I share to some extent the irritation with movie makers who cast "famous name" Caucasian actors as black, Asian, Native American or other non-white characters. I'd make some exceptions to this; Othello and Cleopatra, for example, are classic Shakespeare roles that great actors covet and ought to play if they wish.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I agree that the skin color of Othello/Otello is ambiguous, though also that it is likely somewhat darker than most of the other characters. But this is little more than a metaphor. Neither the play nor the opera are actually about the experience of being black (or dark-skinned), or showing anything about the perspective of Moors or other Africans.

Otello is an outsider from the Venetians he is in charge of, just as the Venetians ruling Cyprus were outsiders. The "European setting" is not the actual island, but just what the Venetians have brought with them during their hundred years of foreign rule. And just as Otello falls, so will the Venetians be ousted shortly after the action of the opera; despite Otello winning the battle at the start, the Turks win the war.

That is to say it is important the he stands out from the Venetians, just as it is important that the Venetians stand out from the Cypriot townsfolk. Shakespeare chose to have his Othello as a Moor (and probably dark-skinned) as a device to make the character stick out (and because he based his play on an earlier play that was about the dangers of miscegenation and was written before the Venetians were ejected from Cyprus). But he could have instead dressed him in an especially jaunty hat for all it has to do with his character. This isn't _Treemonisha_, _Voodoo_, _Frederick Douglass_ (either), _Champion_, or _Yardbird_. It's not even _Porgy and Bess_ or _Margaret Garner_. _Otello_ is more like _Les pêcheurs de perles_, which has nothing to do with ancient Sri Lanka or its people (though, thinking about it, the Bizet is more ridiculous as Sri Lanka and the references to Brahmanism is just an exotic setting; it's not even a metaphor).

But I didn't bring up any of that because it seems to me a side issue. I object to blackface because I see blackface as a racist practice that has its origins in racism. Stage make-up is to make people look normal under stage lights, make Banquo look like a ghost after he's died, so Lucia doesn't need to be covered with real blood, to distinguish Benoît and Alcindoro even though they're played by the same person. None of those are why Francesco Tamagno was darkened as the first Otello: because the public in Milan would not have accepted having a black man on stage, much less in a starring role. And furthermore, most music schools would not train black singers, and few black families were accepted or allowed to be part of society to the extent that young black children even considered a career as an opera singer.

Things have improved some, certainly. But there are still cultural biases that discourage young black singers from being nurtured to where they could be in a place to sing Otello. Including seeing the push-back against major houses that are starting to move away from using blackface.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> I agree that the skin color of Othello/Otello is ambiguous, though also that it is likely somewhat darker than most of the other characters. But *this is little more than a metaphor. Neither the play nor the opera are actually about the experience of being black (or dark-skinned), or showing anything about the perspective of Moors or other Africans.*
> 
> Otello is an outsider from the Venetians he is in charge of, just as the Venetians ruling Cyprus were outsiders. The "European setting" is not the actual island, but just what the Venetians have brought with them during their hundred years of foreign rule. And just as Otello falls, so will the Venetians be ousted shortly after the action of the opera; despite Otello winning the battle at the start, the Turks win the war.
> 
> ...


Francesco Tamagno sang Otello because he had the voice for it, and he was was darkened because Otello is supposed to be Moorish. No one then had conceived of this thing called regietheater, and so when librettos said that someone was black, or Chinese, or corpulent, or hunchbacked, or whatever, every effort was made to fulfill that requirement. Maybe the natural expectation by audiences then that what was clearly called for in a play should appear onstage was naive, but it did at least tend to assure that people were watching the play they thought they were watching. No one had to ask, "Why are they calling Othello a Moor when he looks like the guy who runs the bakery in west Firenze?"

Do you really think that making Otello/Othello look "Moorish," as the play/libretto says he is, need be read as mere "blackface," with the negative connotations of that? The character is not in any obvious way a racist caricature, but he is a north African, and other characters, and even he himself, refer to his "blackness." The idea of "blackness," whether we like it or not, had connotations in Shakespeare's, Verdi's, and even our, time of mystery and evil, and I think it's very interesting that Shakespeare, with his breadth of vision, made Othello a nobler soul than the people around him: he is portrayed as more honest and straightforward in his values and behavior than the cynical political types he must deal with. It's a divide, a cultural divide (explicit in Shakespeare, implicit in Boito's condensed version), which he can't bridge, and it's necessary that we see Othello's virtues/flaws as deriving from his deep-rooted alienness in order not to feel that his credulity is sheer stupidity. I therefore disagree that ethnicity has nothing to do with his character, or that a device such as a "jaunty hat" would have marked him as significantly distinctive or helped to explain his, or the other characters', motivations.

The larger question, as I see it, is: how far are we prepared to go in expunging from the culture everything that someone, somewhere, may be offended by? Racism is a real human issue, but bowdlerizing classic works of fiction isn't the way to deal with it. We will miss out by refusing to look at our cultural heritage as it is. So Othello/Otello is a black man! Lets' see what Shakespeare says about that, and what his portrayal can say to us.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

mountmccabe said:


> I agree that the skin color of Othello/Otello is ambiguous, though also that it is likely somewhat darker than most of the other characters. But this is little more than a metaphor. Neither the play nor the opera are actually about the experience of being black (or dark-skinned), or showing anything about the perspective of Moors or other Africans.
> 
> Otello is an outsider from the Venetians he is in charge of, just as the Venetians ruling Cyprus were outsiders. The "European setting" is not the actual island, but just what the Venetians have brought with them during their hundred years of foreign rule. And just as Otello falls, so will the Venetians be ousted shortly after the action of the opera; despite Otello winning the battle at the start, the Turks win the war.
> 
> ...


May I say this is not at all true. Part of the purpose of make-up had always been to make people look like what they are not. So the actor playing Bardolf does not really have a red nose - it s made up. So the woman playing Octavian is not really a boy! She is made up to look like one. Similarly the actor playing Otello is made up to look like a Moor. Unfortunately today's politically correct climate tends not to see the difference between use and misuse. Of course, the black and white minstrels was a misuse, seen from our perspective. But a serious interpretation of a dark skinned man is certainly not. And where, by the way, are all the black singers queuing up to sing Otello? I have not heard of a single case where a black tenor has been turned down from the role on account of race


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Do you really think that making Otello/Othello look "Moorish," as the play/libretto says he is, need be read as mere "blackface," with the negative connotations of that?


It has the negative connotations all on its own. Shakespeare treated his blackness as a symbol. And he had a white man black up because it was illegal for a black man to be on stage.

The day after that law changed, Othellos were still blacked up white men for a long time. And people started saying "This is a difficult role! We need the best actors playing and they're all white! Where are the black men able to play Othello?" without realizing that banning black people from being on stage and using blackface were discouraging and off-putting to people who would have otherwise considered acting.



Woodduck said:


> The character is not in any obvious way a racist caricature, but he is a north African, and other characters, and even he himself, refer to his "blackness." The idea of "blackness," whether we like it or not, had connotations in Shakespeare's, Verdi's, and even our, time of mystery and evil, and I think it's very interesting that Shakespeare, with his breadth of vision, made Othello a nobler soul than the people around him: he is portrayed as more honest and straightforward in his values and behavior than the cynical political types he must deal with. It's a divide, a cultural divide (explicit in Shakespeare, implicit in Boito's condensed version), which he can't bridge, and it's necessary that we see Othello's virtues/flaws as deriving from his deep-rooted alienness in order not to feel that his credulity is sheer stupidity. I therefore disagree that ethnicity has nothing to do with his character, or that a device such as a "jaunty hat" would have marked him as significantly distinctive or helped to explain his, or the other characters', motivations.


He is an alien, an other, but what kind is not important. It is important that he is neither Venetian nor Cypriot, and that he is from a people group thought of as inferior by the Venetians, which does not really narrow it down. Writing him as Chinese, or Indian, or as an actual alien from another planet would not change anything other than a few references to skin color and insults thrown at him. (Not that I am saying that caricature would be better).

Othello is not written as black, but as non-white. Shakespeare knew enough to write about an outsider, who had to be better and more noble to get anywhere (and yet was still hated/resented for being an outsider), but didn't otherwise have anything to say about being black.



Woodduck said:


> The larger question, as I see it, is: how far are we prepared to go in expunging from the culture everything that someone, somewhere, may be offended by? Racism is a real human issue, but bowdlerizing classic works of fiction isn't the way to deal with it. We will miss out by refusing to look at our cultural heritage as it is. So Othello/Otello is a black man! Lets' see what Shakespeare says about that, and what his portrayal can say to us.


For Othello/Otello in blackface, the question of offense is not theoretical. But I'm also not asking for _Othello_/_Otello_ to be expunged from the culture, rather that when putting together a performance that companies do so with empathy (a.k.a. "political correctness").

We want to see Othello played by a black man? Then we should be supportive when a young black man plays Mercutio, Romeo, or Richard III. And support plays actually about being black such as _Tambourines to Glory_ by Langston Hughes, _Blues for Mister Charlie_ by James Baldwin, or _Fences_ by August Wilson.

Want to see _Otello_ with a dark-skinned man as the lead? Then cheer young dark-skinned singers that sing Calaf, Don Alvaro, Florestan, or Erik rather than complaining that the opera about a magic ghost ship becomes unbelievable if there's a black man as Senta's old boyfriend. [I'm not saying anyone has made this specific objection].


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## angelo (Jun 20, 2017)

Verdi wrote Otello having in mind Francesco Tamagno as tenor. We are lucky that we have recordings of Tamagno singing pieces of the Otello. He was the tenor (and he way of singing) approved by Verdi for such role.

You can search on youtube "Tamagno Otello Esultate" (having in mind that are first acustic recordings). 
And then search "Kaufmann Otello Esultate", and compare the type of voice.

Your opinion?



mountmccabe said:


> None of those are why Francesco Tamagno was darkened as the first Otello: because the public in Milan would not have accepted having a black man on stage, much less in a starring role. And furthermore, most music schools would not train black singers, and few black families were accepted or allowed to be part of society to the extent that young black children even considered a career as an opera singer.


The population of black people in Italy in 1887 was zero. Verdi decided that Tamagno had the right voice. And opera was still considered as theatre: so people requested costumes, scenes and make-up in line with the libretto (and texts in Italian, translated if needed). That's all.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Othello is not written as black, but as non-white. He is an alien, an other, but what kind is not important. Shakespeare treated his blackness as a symbol. 

This strikes me as a modern, abstract way of looking at drama. Shakespeare wouldn't have occupied his mind with such a 20th-century category as "otherness," or conceived of such a non-quality as "non-whiteness," to be represented _somehow._ That just isn't the nature of his art, which is specific. He's quite specific about who and what Othello is.

Shakespeare knew enough to write about an outsider, who had to be better and more noble to get anywhere (and yet was still hated/resented for being an outsider), but didn't otherwise have anything to say about being black. It is important that he is neither Venetian nor Cypriot, and that he is from a people group thought of as inferior by the Venetians, which does not really narrow it down. Writing him as Chinese, or Indian, or as an actual alien from another planet would not change anything other than a few references to skin color and insults thrown at him.

Shakespeare makes a real effort to portray a specific sort of difference, not difference for its own sake. I believe he's presenting in Othello a mix of traits he and his audiences would have seen as appropriate to a "Moor" and not a "Chinaman" or a "Hindoo" or a Martian (I've described some of those traits in previous posts). If he had chosen one of those very different characters he would have written a very different play. We may rationally object to the "noble savage" stereotype, but it was a potent image for Europeans, and stereotypes tend to contain at least a germ of truth. Othello proves both noble and savage. Is the stereotype "racist"? Maybe. But it's what Shakespeare wrote into his play.

And he had a white man black up because it was illegal for a black man to be on stage. The day after that law changed, Othellos were still blacked up white men for a long time. And people started saying "This is a difficult role! We need the best actors playing and they're all white! Where are the black men able to play Othello?" without realizing that banning black people from being on stage and using blackface were discouraging and off-putting to people who would have otherwise considered acting.

That's history. A play isn't a lesson in the history of theatrical production. There are black people on the stage now, most people now alive can't remember when there weren't, and anyway they ought not to be thinking about it while listening to Shakespearean verse.

For Othello/Otello in blackface, the question of offense is not theoretical. 

The question is personal. You, personally, aren't comfortable with a white man made up as the Othello that Shakespeare conceived. I, personally, am - and more than that, I insist on the authenticity of it. Art isn't there to be inoffensive to everyone.

But I'm also not asking for _Othello_/_Otello_ to be expunged from the culture, rather that when putting together a performance that companies do so with empathy (a.k.a. "political correctness").

A historically significant drama by a genius playwright is not a "safe space" for those who don't want to confront the issues it raises. No one is compelled to attend a performance and be witness to the sins (if sins they be) of our ancestors. But if they do attend, they may have to think about the attitudes and assumptions of both their ancestors and themselves.

We want to see Othello played by a black man? Then we should be supportive when a young black man plays Mercutio, Romeo, or Richard III. And support plays actually about being black such as _Tambourines to Glory_ by Langston Hughes, _Blues for Mister Charlie_ by James Baldwin, or _Fences_ by August Wilson. Then cheer young dark-skinned singers that sing Calaf, Don Alvaro, Florestan, or Erik rather than complaining that the opera about a magic ghost ship becomes unbelievable if there's a black man as Senta's old boyfriend.

Yes to all of the above. But racial characteristics aren't written into these characters. It's true that Romeo and Florestan wouldn't have been black as historical personages, but their race is not an issue in the play or opera in which they appear and so it makes no difference in the theater. If a play or opera designates a character as having certain traits, including a certain race or skin color, then whatever needs to be done to present him that way should be done, including changing his skin tone to black, white, red or yellow (or green, in the case of that Martian - but I can hear it already: politically sensitive Martians complaining about Earth colonialism and the exploitation of green people)!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

mountmccabe said:


> It has the negative connotations all on its own. Shakespeare treated his blackness as a symbol. And he had a white man black up because it was illegal for a black man to be on stage.
> 
> The day after that law changed, Othellos were still blacked up white men for a long time. And people started saying "This is a difficult role! We need the best actors playing and they're all white! Where are the black men able to play Othello?" without realizing that banning black people from being on stage and using blackface were discouraging and off-putting to people who would have otherwise considered acting.
> 
> ...


Not true. In the opera Otello is referred to as black :

This black man has a graveyard air,
a sightless shadow sits within
of death and terror made!

And there is a line by Iago to make us uncomfortable:
the beautiful Desdemona,
who in your secret dreams you so adore,
will soon begin to abhor the murky kisses
of that thick-lipped savage.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

mountmccabe said:


> Want to see _Otello_ with a dark-skinned man as the lead? Then cheer young dark-skinned singers that sing Calaf, Don Alvaro, Florestan, or Erik rather than complaining that the opera about a magic ghost ship becomes unbelievable if there's a black man as Senta's old boyfriend. [I'm not saying anyone has made this specific objection].


But to my knowledge this already happens. I saw Der fliegende Hollander at the Sarasota opera a few seasons back and the Dutchman was played by the African American bass baritone Kevin Short. There weren't any protests or objections that I heard to a 17th century Dutch sailor being black or to Senta's falling for a black man, from audience members or in the press. In fact none of the reviews I read of the opera even made mention of the fact that he was African American, and I had no idea this was the case until I sat down and read the program.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Faustian said:


> But to my knowledge this already happens. I saw Der fliegende Hollander at the Sarasota opera a few seasons back and the Dutchman was played by the African American bass baritone Kevin Short. There weren't any protests or objections that I heard to a 17th century Dutch sailor being black or to Senta's falling for a black man, from audience members or in the press. In fact none of the reviews I read of the opera even made mention of the fact that he was African American, and I had no idea this was the case until I sat down and read the program.


Though black (and other nonwhite) opera singers are still a minoriity, nobody bats an eye about them taking on any roles they're vocally suited to. I remember back in the '60s when Grace Bumbry appeared as Venus in Wieland Wagner's _Tannhauser._ The "schwarze Venus," singing splendidly and looking as gorgeous as Lieutenant Uhura, caused quite a sensation as the first black to sing at Bayreuth, despite some protests before the fact. There's certainly nothing in the plot or libretto to make her race an issue.

In that same decade Leontyne Price was arguably the world's leading Verdi soprano, and as with Venus there's nothing in the roles she sang to which skin color is relevant. But imagine the absurdity of casting her as Desdemona alongside a white Otello! I don't think she ever sang the role, and I doubt that anyone ever considered casting her in it. But I'll bet there's some regie hotshot out there who'd love to do a "race reversal" in the opera, just to make "a statement" about how liberated we all are (or just to get some press).


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Enjoy it. Might not be there long.


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