Houston Grand Opera to stage demanding 'Otello'

Opera companies worldwide revere Giuseppe Verdi's adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Othello." Yet they rarely perform it.

The story of a war hero tricked into thinking his wife is unfaithful, "Otello" demands a tenor whose voice can both roar and whisper, and whose acting can convey a mighty warrior's collapse. Singers who master the role are among opera's rarest breeds.

Placido Domingo, who practically owned the character for a generation, portrayed Otello in Houston Grand Opera's previous staging in 1989. When the company returns to the work Friday, its linchpin will again be the tenor: New Zealander Simon O'Neill.

When O'Neill played the larger-than-life title role in Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin" for Houston Grand Opera in 2009, the company saw its opportunity to bring back "Otello," artistic director Patrick Summers said.

"It's a combination of an extraordinary artist we believe in and one of the greatest operas ever written, which is so rarely performed," he said. "The combination made it so enticing."

Verdi hailed Shakespeare as "the great master of the human heart." "Macbeth" inspired one of Verdi's most haunting works; "Othello" lured the composer out of retirement when his publisher and a talented composer and librettist, Arrigo Boito, showed him a scenario.

Verdi and Boito pared Shakespeare's play to focus on its central trio: Otello, a Moor who has forsaken his Muslim homeland to fight for Venice; Desdemona, his much-younger wife; and the ensign Jago, whose rage at being passed over for a promotion spurs him to plot Otello's downfall.

Characters, including Desdemona's father, who opposed her marriage to the black Othello, disappeared from the story.

"It's distilled down to the essentials," said British stage director John Cox, who first worked with Houston Grand Opera in 1975. "You gain from that … an almost unbearable emotional intensity."

Verdi breathed life into the characters through his vivid score, from Otello's clarion entrance proclaiming victory and Jago's snarling, nihilistic soliloquy to Desdemona's ethereal "Ave Maria." Verdi additionally used the orchestra to heighten the storytelling, not only through the musical storms accompanying Otello's rages, but also with magical touches such as the love duet's serene opening, featuring cellos in lush, four-part harmony.

The chorus has no equivalent in the play, but Verdi and Boito used one to enhance the story.

"There's no adaptation of a Shakespeare play into an opera or any kind of musical theater that is both so faithful to the feel of the play and so much its own as Verdi's 'Otello,'" Summers said. "Ninety percent of Shakespeare's play is gone. But you have 100 percent of the experience, because of Verdi's music."

Verdi knew the title role's challenges would be difficult. Even before rehearsals began for the 1887 premiere, the composer ordered the singer cast as Otello to meet him for one-on-one coaching.

The role has since tested generations of tenors, who must capture Otello's decline from victorious soldier and adoring husband to distraught killer.

"It's an extreme part, because this is an extreme man," Summers said. The role also demands a performer with enough stamina for the four-act drama.

"For most tenors, it's the Everest. For me it is," O'Neill said.

O'Neill's climb began in 2006, when he played a small role in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at Austria's Salzburg Festival. Conductor Riccardo Muti, one of the most powerful figures in opera, called O'Neill over during a break. He had heard potential.

"He put his hand on my chest, quite firmly," O'Neill said. "He said, 'Otello. Two weeks.' "

O'Neill auditioned as commanded. The conductor offered him the part for another festival and assigned a coach from Italy. Though O'Neill even sounded out Domingo for tips, he decided he wasn't ready for the role, and eventually withdrew.

O'Neill didn't perform the role until 2010, when the London Symphony Orchestra called him the night before it was to play a concert version. The original singer had pulled out at the last minute.

"I said, 'I can do it.' I trusted myself," O'Neill said. When he arrived at the concert hall he learned the orchestra planned to record the performance for its LSO Live label.

"Other than breathing in the middle of an important word, I'm very proud of it," O'Neill said.

O'Neill's voice rings out like a trumpet on the record, remaining fresh and secure until the end.

Opera Australia presented O'Neill's first stage performances of the role this summer. The Sydney Morning Herald's critic hailed the force and flaming color of O'Neill's singing and the Guardian praised his unwavering vocal and physical presence.

O'Neill sees room for his portrayal to grow, though. His top goal is to bring a fullness to his voice to complement its brilliance.

"I'm 42 now," O'Neill says. "In the opera business, particularly for Otello, that's pretty young. You're going to see me doing this for a lot longer, I hope."