It’s a sad indictment of our cultural history that Covent Garden has not before now been able to field a black singer in the role of Verdi’s Moor, Otello. Russell Thomas has a striking stage presence and charts the character’s trajectory from straight-backed Venetian general to hunched victim of Iago’s plotting, eaten by jealousy. Whether he has all the requisite vocal qualities for this most demanding of tenor roles is a moot point.
It’s a resonant voice, with a distinctive edge that enables him to register anguish as well as anger. But those expecting the sovereign ringing timbre of a Vickers or a Domingo will be disappointed, though Thomas, who specialised in Mozart and lyric roles earlier in his career, observes that the part is rooted in the bel canto tradition. A less-than-heavyweight Otello, however, needs sensitive support, and Daniele Rustioni, for all his otherwise exemplary handling of the score, gave him little quarter in the big scenes, unleashing Verdi’s thunderous, lightning-flecked sonorities in all their thrilling potency.
Keith Warner’s penetrating production was first seen with Jonas Kaufmann in 2017. Boris Kudlicka’s stunning lamp-black sets, evocatively lit by Bruno Poet, symbolise the darkness of which the human spirit is capable, or perhaps the depths of despair to which it can sink. Countervailing white motifs (in costumes and props) represent purity, integrity and (in a statue of the winged lion of Venice, subsequently demolished) spiritual strength.
When the Cypriot children serenade Desdemona in Act II, the tension of that chiaroscuro is released in brown ochres and olives: the colours of nature under the Mediterranean sun. Later, blood-red walls presage the murder to come. In Isabelle Kettle’s faithful revival, the character interactions are projected with all the potency of the original production.
The new Iago, Christopher Maltman, exudes menace in his highly charged delivery, while the Armenian soprano Hrachuhí Bassénz is also outstanding as Desdemona, floating her lines angelically throughout but capable of an explosive reaction to the accusation of infidelity. Her Willow Song, as she prepares for bed in the final act, was exquisitely delivered. Monika–Evelin Liiv is a formidable Emilia and Piotr Buszewski a lightweight but not unattractive Cassio.
Music director Antonio Pappano, sitting in the audience, will have taken a keen interest in the performances of not only Thomas but also Rustioni, his former assistant and potential successor. There was a lot to admire in the latter’s conducting: dramatic vibrancy alternating with lingering pathos and, in the jovial scene for Iago and Cassio, a mercurial touch worthy of Berlioz. He may not yet have quite the theatrical command that Pappano displayed when he conducted the production in 2017 and again in 2019, but there’s no doubt that some of the master’s magic has rubbed off on him.
