Review: WNO’s Otello at Liverpool Empire

Oct 27 2008 Chester Chronicle

WELSH NATIONAL OPERA/Empire Theatre, Liverpool

REVIEW/by Peggy Woodcock

OTELLO is a powerful story of love, hate and, above all, jealousy, and it had a rich, resonant re-telling in the Welsh National Opera production at the Liverpool Empire on Friday.

Here was all the emotion and machinations of the Shakespearean text, dramatised by Verdi’s music and heightened by the superb singing of both soloists and company.

And visually, it was a feast. Simple staging nevertheless evoked the setting of a 15th century Cyprian seaport, while the costumes were magnificent. Venetian ambassadors arriving in the castle great hall to meet Otello and company were a vision of sumptuous purple brocades and pink plumes.

But beneath all this beauty dark deeds were afoot as Otello, victorious army general, was taken in by his ensign, Iago, jealous of his success and his marriage to Desdemona. Wrongly believing she was unfaithful, the conspiracy took Otello to a terrible climax of murder and suicide.

Dennis O’Neill was a commanding Otello, managing the difficult blend of authority and vulnerability. He and David Kempster, a suitably devilish Iago, explored all the conflicts of this temperamental relationship.

And this was equally true of the marriage of Otello and Desdemona. Amanda Roocroft was superb in this role, a beautiful woman, elegantly gowned, poignant in her portrayal of the wrongly accused wife.

The early love duet by O’Neill and Roocroft, as they celebrated their union was of the most lyrical passages in the production. Their voices, equally, gave us the full drama of their final, pitiful, raging clash.