I approached this with the knowledge that the world not only does not need another recording of Verdi’s Otello–there already are a surprising number of superb performances–but that the world certainly doesn’t need another one starring Placido Domingo. I turned out to be wrong: this one is aces. By my count, this is Domingo’s seventh, if you include both audio and video, and it goes straight to the top of the list. Recorded in May, 1987 in Vienna, Domingo is in splendid, ringing voice despite a spreading high note every so often, and his portrait of the tortured Moor comes closest here to the desperation and intensity that Jon Vickers brought to the role, with, of course, Domingo’s more apt Italianate sound. He’s wonderfully loving in the first-act duet with Anna Tomowa-Sintow’s Desdemona (she lacks only a real Italian warmth to make hers a great portrayal, and she almost makes up for it in concentration and pure singing), and he grows more and more violent–and pathetic–as the opera progresses.
And who wouldn’t, given Renato Bruson’s elegant, sneering, understatedly evil Iago? His voice is in fine shape and his snarling rendition of the “Credo” and suave, whispered, spun-legato “Dream” are show-stoppers. He alone justifies Zubin Mehta’s relatively slow tempos: there is great detail in both orchestra and ensembles with Mehta’s pacing, and you rarely feel lethargy despite the Karajan-like dissection. Mehta knows when to shock with a speed-up (the stretch from “Cassio’s Dream” to the final duet of Act 2 will shake you in your boots), and elsewhere he brings out the one-on-one torment. Kaludi Kaludov is a luxury Cassio and Kurt Rydl’s Lodovico has great authority. The Vienna forces are well-drilled and sing and play with utmost commitment. Which Otello to buy? This one is a good first choice, tied with Domingo’s earliest (studio recording) under Levine on RCA or the one from 1976 under the amazing Carlos Kleiber (on Opera d’Oro). And then of course, there’s Toscanini.
