Opera North

Jago, an ensign in the Venetian army, is a man who bears a grudge. When his general, Otello, passes him over for promotion in favour of Cassio, Jago’s festering resentment quickly turns to downright malice. He poisons Otello’s mind with suspicion, and step by step, leads Otello to believe that his young wife Desdemona is in love with the young and handsome Cassio. And so Jago, a man consumed by envy, makes Otello into a monster of murderous jealousy.

Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito transmute Shakespeare’s great tragedy of a man who loved not wisely but too well into one of the crowning glories of Italian opera. The intense passions unleashed in the play are only enhanced by the concentrated power of Verdi’s music. This new production reunites the production team of director Tim Albery and designer Leslie Travers who created Opera North’s recent, widely acclaimed Giulio Cesare; Music Director Richard Farnes conducts.

Sung in Italian with English titles