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Incoherent Otello from Cura, Hampson

Robert Levine

Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, N.Y.; March 11, 2013—Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Otello on Michael Yeargan’s gigantic sets has returned to the Met for a handful of performances after its initial run last fall, with an entirely different cast and conductor. And a strange lot they are.

It is difficult to assess the work of young French/Armenian conductor Alain Altinoglu. His handling of the orchestra and chorus in this grand, difficult work was admirable, with tension and tenderness in appropriate moments, but he was sideswiped by his Otello and his Iago. José Cura remains a very puzzling tenor: the voice occasionally rings true and majestic, but it’s rare. He alternates what sounds like marking—what singers do in rehearsal—with yelling. He pays attention to the text but almost never to note values. Altinoglu led a quick, Toscanini-like whip-smart reading that nonetheless was not fast enough for Cura: he was insistently ahead of the beat. When Cura occasionally did hit a big, high note smack in the middle, he dropped it as quickly as he could. A legato line was nowhere in evidence and he rushed through the Love Duet as if he had a train to catch. Acting was limited to lurking and falling. Very odd.

The Iago of Thomas Hampson exposed the baritone’s vocal weaknesses. The voice was never really juicy enough for Iago, and by now it has lost all quality in the middle and the low notes are merely guessed at. He carries himself impressively, but that’s hardly enough. The “Si pel ciel” duet was a mess—had these two ever met before the performance?

Krassimira Stoyanova’s Desdemona was a bright light. The voice lacks inherent warmth, but she is a fine artist and led the Act 3 Concertato with strength and pathos. She somewhat oversang the “Ave Maria”—it lacked intimacy and simplicity—but it was miles ahead of any other singing in the evening. Young tenor Alexey Dolgov was impressive as Cassio, and the others in the cast were good. But in all, an Otello to stump Verdians.

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