Synopsis

One of the greatest of all Italian operas had its first performance on this day in 1887. Otello, by Giuseppe Verdi, was a musical version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello. The opera was written when he was in his 70s, years after he had supposedly retired from a long and successful career as Italy’s most famous opera composer. It was one of the greatest triumphs of his career.

The premiere took place at La Scala, Milan, with famous singers in the lead roles, and the cream of international society and the music world in the audience. Even the orchestra was distinguished: among the cellists was a young fellow named Arturo Toscanini, who would later become one of the world’s most famous conductors. Two of the violinists had the last name of Barbirolli — they were the father and grandfather of another famous conductor-to-be, John Barbirolli. Both Toscanini and Barbirolli would eventually make classic recordings of Verdi’s Otello.

And speaking of recordings, in the early years of the 20th century, Italian tenor Francesco Tamago, who created the role of Otello, and the French baritone Victor Maurel, who created the role of Iago, both recorded acoustical phonograph excerpts from Verdi’s Otello — the technological marvel of the 20th century — preserving, belatedly, a sonic souvenir of a 19th-century Verdi premiere.

Music Played in Today's Program

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Act I Excerpt from Otello; Ambrosian Chorus; New Philharmonia Orchestra; John Barbirolli, conductor; EMI Classics 65296