BWW Reviews: Jealousy Is a Wild-Eyed Monster Named Jose Cura in the Met's OTELLO

With a popular opera by Rossini already co-opting the title OTELLO, Verdi momentarily thought about calling his work IAGO, after the story's villain. But then, he'd never seen Jose Cura's portrayal of the title role, which made its house debut at the Met on March 11. It's a risky, over-the-top performance, a freight train going full throttle over a cliff and totally exciting to watch, even when the tenor's control occasionally veered off course. And while his shift from loving husband to jealous lover may have seemed to call for Prozac and/or a straightjacket, it was mesmerizing.

Keeping up with the impetuous Cura must have been a challenge for his co-stars, Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova and baritone Thomas Hampson, not to mention French conductor Alain Altinoglu, but they did so ably. In the Met's arresting 1994 production by Elijah Mojinsky, Stoyanova was a full-voiced, passionate Desdemona, in a role frequently cast with more delicate sopranos in mind. She stood up to Cura nobly, but I must admit to worrying whether he was actually strangling her in the penultimate scene. Her breathtaking accounts of "The Willow Song" and the "Ave Maria" that followed were gorgeous, and poignant, to hear.

Shakespeare wrote "One may smile, and smile, and still be a villain" describing Claudius in HAMLET, but it could go for OTELLO's Iago as well. Hampson was assured in the role, with a heart filled with anger toward Otello and Cassio (the fine tenor Alexey Dolgov), who has usurped the rank that Iago felt should have been his own. His "Credo" was key to his interpretation of the role, controlled and bitter, and the scene where he tricks Cassio in order to cement Otello's distrust of his wife, was thrilling. I could have wished for a few more "smiles" from this villain, as Verdi and librettist Arrigo Boito preferred, but his suave, false innocence worked pretty well--at least, until his final moments, when he ran off stage like a scared animal.

What can one say about the Met's orchestra and chorus--except that they were at their best in this demanding opera, thanks in no small part to conductor Altinoglu, who was confidently in charge of a demanding performance. The opening scene, in the harbor of Cyprus as the citizens await the return of the triumphant Otello, sets up the drama of the opera unforgettably; in its final strains, the orchestra brings the tumultuous work to its sad, tragic conclusion.

Long before ever seeing Shakespeare's play, I was astonished by OTELLO's economy of storytelling and glorious, passion-filled score. After seeing both, I became convinced that the opera has surely outdone the original in every way, making Shakespeare's OTHELLO, if not obsolete, then at least a runner-up to the drama of Verdi. This performance at the Met cemented that conviction for me.

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