![Henri Decaisne, Maria Malibran as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello (1831) Paris, Musée Carnavalet [Source: Wikimedia Commons]](http://www.operatoday.com/Maria_Malabran_by_Henri_Dec.gif)
15 Nov 2009
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Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia (‘Othello, or The Moor of Venice’): Dramma in three acts.
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Music composed by Gioachino Rossini. Libretto by Francesco Berio di Salsa after William Shakespeare’s play Othello, or The Moor of Venice.
First Performance: 4 December 1816, Teatro del Fondo, Naples.
| Prinicpal Roles: | |
| Otello, a Moor in the Serivce of Venice | Tenor |
| Desdemona, secretly married to Otello | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Iago, the pretended friend of Otello | Tenor |
| Emilia, confidant of Desdemona | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Elmiro, a Venetian patrician, the father of Desdemona and enemy of Otello | Bass |
| Roderigo, the rejected lover of Desdemona and son of the Doge | Tenor |
| The Doge of Venice | Tenor |
| Lucio | Tenor |
| A Gondolier | Tenor |
Setting: Venice
Synopsis: The opera deviates quite heavily from Shakespeare's original, not only in that it takes place in Venice and not on Cyprus, but also in that the whole dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. A recent Opera Rara CD of the opera even includes an alternative happy ending, a common practice with drama and opera at one time. The role of Jago is reduced to some degree and is much less diabolical as in the original or in Verdi's 1887 version. Rossini's Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Giuseppe Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare.
[Synopsis source: Wikipedia]