On October 6, 2015, the Metropolitan Opera showed a production of Otello, an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The opera is based on Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Although not an exact interpretation of Othello (e.g. Act I was cut out), the opera was an incredible experience for a person such as myself who has never seen an opera before. I was overwhelmed by the grandeur of the building and impressed by the incredible acoustics of the theater where the sound from a flick of a page from my program book was suddenly amplified. The show itself was exhilarating; the powerful voices of the cast rang through my ears, many times giving me goosebumps especially during Act II where Iago’s scheming baritone voice fused with Othello’s hell-bent on vengeance tenor voice, creating one of the best scenes in the opera.
I could continue on with writing about how amazing the story and the cast were, but I feel that I am bound to come across such a review somewhere on the Internet. So, instead of writing why I liked the play (or why I didn’t), I would like to bring attention to the things in the background of the play and why they mattered to it: the orchestra and the scaffoldings.
In my opinion, the orchestra (led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin) was just as important to the play as Othello and Desdemona were. The orchestra not only provided instrumental accompaniment to the voices of the characters, but were the source of sound effects. The crash of the cymbals meshed with the reverberations of the drums in the percussion section gave the impression of a howling wind and a powerful storm in the beginning of the first act in which the citizens of Cyprus eagerly await Othello’s arrival. The sounds of the trumpets convinced the audience of the arrival of an important character (e.g. Lodovico). What I enjoyed the most from the orchestra was watching the conductor’s movements and how each orchestra member responded to the energy of the conductor. It was as if the orchestra was playing along to the tune of what was occurring in the play. During moments of calmness, the orchestra was almost silent. During moments of calamity and suspense, the energy of the orchestra suddenly reappeared. It was also a joy watching the string players in particular because of how each one would simultaneously play along with one another, creating an interesting display of unified actions. I cannot imagine sitting through the whole play without the orchestra’s accompaniment. At times, I even found myself bored during scenes without any music. The orchestra was what helped keep things interesting.
I also mentioned “scaffolding”. Those of you reading this might be wondering what I’m talking about. The best way I can describe what I am discussing would be those blue, almost translucent things used by the characters to enter in and out of. I apologize in advance for my vagueness. I wish I knew what the official name for those things was. I will just call them “scaffolding” for now. I saw these props as incredibly vital to the play. These props served two important functions: 1) providing the audience with the impression of boundaries, wall, rooms, and buildings and 2) helping the cast enter into the scenes inconspicuously. In one instance, the “scaffolding” gave the impression that Iago was standing above on a balcony, eavesdropping on all the action occurring below. This helped to enhance Iago’s sly and deceitful character. In another instance, the “scaffolding” played an important role in hiding Othello while he eavesdropped on Cassio and Iago’s conversation. It created the impression that there were multiple rooms in the scene even though the action was confined by the boundaries created by the amount of space on the stage. It also gave the impression of time passing as Othello would run into Cassio and Iago midway in their conversation, showing that the concept of time existed in the play. Finally, it served a practical purpose in allowing the cast members to enter in and out of the scene without actually disrupting the action with their movements. The cast could walk inside of the “scaffolding” and straight into the curtains.
I’d like to mention that not all things in the background were helpful to the play namely, the loud coughing of an audience member a few rows behind me or the shushing of some in retaliation of the accidental clapping of others. Well, at least the acoustics were nice.
I like your theory/explanation of the scaffolding parts of the set! Prof. Natov and I were both curious about how they might be interpreted – and, more broadly speaking, what the production team was after with them.
The orchestra for me was definitely one of the highlights as well. As good as electronic reproduction of music has become, it can’t cover the full range of sound from a live orchestral/operatic performance in a good acoustical space.
I read your review prior to actually seeing the performance myself since I had seen it a week later, on October 14th. I decided to pay specific attention to two of the you things categorized as the things in the background: the orchestra and “scaffolding” . I found that I agree with most of points you made. Where you compare the importance of the orchestra to the importance of Desdemona and Othello, at first glance it seemed to be a bit of hyperbole, but after experiencing the performance myself, I found the same to be true. My thought process during the performance, after reading your review, was that I would try to imagine it differently: I tried to imagine the performance with minimal involvement of the orchestra, and characters simply appearing without attempting to sublime with what you term “scaffolding”. The tempo of the opera itself was certainly enhanced by both. The tone of the performance was, for the most part, determined by the flow and intensity of the orchestra, while the stage was able to become several various structures almost instantaneously due to scaffolding. I found these two things to be vital to the success and fluidity of the opera.
At first glance, I did not realize that the sliding doors were that important. While watching the opera, I actually found the constant sliding of doors confusing. Especially in the act when Othello was eavesdropping on Iago and Cassio’s conversation, it left me confused. I understood what the stage manager was trying to convey, but at the same time, it was confusing for me. It didn’t seem like they were going into different rooms. It just seemed like the setting was shifting behind them. However, your explanation of the stage setting really helps clarify it and bring light to the importance of it. I agree that it did make the stage seem a lot more spacious than it actually was and contributed to the storytelling aspect of the opera.