Opera
Duration
140 Min
Karajan conducts Verdi: Otello
Berliner Philharmoniker
Production Date: 01/01/1973
140 Min
The tenor Jon Vickers was an artist of outsize charisma and a truly golden voice, incapable of giving a routine performance, and this impressive 1973 film of Verdi’s Otello would be worth seeing for his performance in the title role alone. But pair him with Mirella Freni – singing with heartbreaking beauty as Desdemona – and place them both in a bold cinematic reimagining of Herbert von Karajan’s Salzburg Festival staging, and the result is incandescent. Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic bring all their unrivalled lustre and panache to a tragedy which many consider to be Verdi’s single greatest achievement. Please note: as was common practice at the time, this production of Otello features black-face make-up.
- Soloists:
- Mirella Freni (Soprano), Stefania Malagù (Mezzo-Soprano), Michel Sénéchal (Tenor), Jon Vickers (Tenor), José van Dam (Bass-Baritone), Peter Glossop (Baritone), Aldo Bottion (Tenor), Mario Macchi (Bass)
- Ensembles:
- Berliner Philharmoniker, Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
- Conductor:
- Herbert von Karajan
