Othello: JOSÉ CURA

Libretto: Arrigo Boito (po Othellu W. Shakespearja)
Conductor: Jaroslav Kyzlink
Director: Manfred Schweigkofler
Set designer: Walter Schütze
Costume designer: Mateja Benedetti

Soloists, choir and orchestra of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre Ljubljana

In January this year the Ljubljana Opera and Cankarjev Dom marked the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare with their first-ever staging of Verdi’s Otello, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. As the production comes to  the Ljubljana Festival, the title role will be interpreted by the Argentine singer, composer, conductor and producer José Cura. He is a famed interpreter of Verdi’s heroes and has first sung Otello to great critical acclaim back in 1997.

Verdi’s musical drama is a story of love, envy, revenge and intense jealousy – which so consumes Otello that he is led to murder his blameless bride Desdemona. Otello himself was the victim of the envious Iago, who persuaded him, falsely, that Desdemona was deceiving him with Cassio. In the end the tragic hero Otello realises that he has wronged his now dead spouse and, in despair, fatally stabs himself in the heart.

Co-production: Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom

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