Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887.
The composer was reluctant to write anything new after the success of Aida in 1871, and he retreated into retirement. It took his Milan publisher Giulio Ricordi the next ten years, first to encourage the revision of Verdi's 1857 Simon Boccanegra by introducing Boito as librettist and then to begin the arduous process of persuading and cajoling Verdi to see Boito's completed libretto for Otello in July/August 1881. However, the process of writing the first drafts of the libretto and the years of their revision, with Verdi all along not promising anything, dragged on. It was not until 1884, five years after the first drafts of the libretto, that composition began, with most of the work finishing in late 1885. When it finally premiered in Milan on 5 February 1887, it proved to be a resounding success, and further stagings of Otello soon followed at leading theatres throughout Europe and America.
Composition history
Verdi's intended retirement
After the completion and premiere of his opera Aida in December 1871, Verdi decided that it was time for him to end his successful career as a composer of opera, much as Rossini had done after the completion of the opera William Tell, though he was easily the most popular, and possibly the wealthiest, composer in Italy at the time. However, Verdi's sixties were not good years: as musicologist Julian Budden notes, "he seemed to have entered in a mood of gloom and depression his letters at the time were full of complaints about the Italian theatre, Italian politics and Italian music in general seen by him as sinking beneath a tide of Germanism".Because of the immense popularity of Verdi's music in Italy by the 1870s, Verdi's retirement seemed to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, to be a waste of talent and possible profits. Thus a plot of sorts was hatched in order to coax the composer out of retirement to write another opera. Because of the importance of the dramatic aspects of opera to the composer, Verdi was especially selective in his choice of subjects. Consequently, if he were to agree to create another opera after a decade of retirement, the libretto would need to be one that would capture his interest.
During the period when a suitable story was being sought for what became Aida, Ricordi had come across Boito's partly finished libretto of his own opera Nerone, and he even suggested in a letter of February 1870 to Verdi that, with Boito's permission, he set it to music. Verdi ignored it, and so Ricordi tried again in January 1871, enclosing with his letter a copy of Boito's libretto for Boito's friend and collaborator Franco Faccio's Amleto which had been given in 1865 and was revived in February 1871. Nothing came of this approach, although Ricordi persevered in various ways, as seen by the composer's gruff response to the publisher's statement "The whole salvation of the theatre and the art is in your hands" when Verdi wrote in April 1875 that "I cannot take it as but a joke", continuing with "Oh no, never fear, composers for the theatre will never be lacking".
Verdi's refusals continued as the 1870s progressed. Knowing of his interest in the soprano Adelina Patti, Ricordi tried to entice him into writing an opera for her, but Verdi's refusal resulted in another approach via a letter to the composer's wife Giuseppina, who was to present the idea at an opportune time. But she confessed defeat yet again. Clara Maffei also tried, unsuccessfully, in March 1878 to interest Verdi, who replied: "For what reason should I write? What would I succeed in doing?"
While he was attempting to get Verdi involved a new opera, in May 1879 Ricordi also tried to engage the composer in revising Simon Boccanegra. This suggestion, originally expressed ten years before but ignored, was once again shrugged off by Verdi, who sent a note saying that the 1857 score, which had been sent to the composer for review, would remain untouched "just as you sent it to me".
Persisting with further attempts to convince the composer, Ricordi had also broached the idea of a collaboration with Boito for a new opera based on Shakespeare's Othello. Verdi admired the dramatic works of Shakespeare and had, throughout his career, desired to create operas based on his plays, although his one attempt at doing so, Macbeth in 1847, although initially successful, was not well received when revised for performance in Paris in 1865. Because of its relatively straightforward story, the play Othello was selected as a likely target.
Collaborations with Boito in the revision of the 1857 opera Simon Boccanegra helped to convince Verdi of Boito's ability as a librettist. Musicologist Roger Parker speculates that Verdi's final agreement to revise Boccanegra was based on a desire to "test the possibility" of working with Boito before possibly embarking on the larger project. Frank Walker expresses much the same thoughts, noting that "some of the results, such as the magnificent scene in the Council Chamber and the villainous Paolo's Iago-like recitatives, foreshadow the later opera."
Verdi is introduced to the idea of ''Otello''
Verdi visited Milan on 30 June 1879, and conducted his Requiem Mass in a benefit performance at La Scala. He received the great acclaim of the public, which included the La Scala orchestra playing outside his hotel. Walker assumes that it was both Ricordi and Faccio who stage managed the effects to give the composer the sense of being welcome and respected in Milan.Finally, after some plotting, Ricordi, in conjunction with Verdi's friend, the conductor Franco Faccio, subtly introduced the idea of a new opera to Verdi. During a dinner at Verdi's Milan residence during the summer of 1879, Ricordi and Faccio guided the conversation towards Shakespeare's play Othello and to the librettist Arrigo Boito. Ricordi told the story to Giuseppe Adami, a librettist for three of Puccini's operas:
The idea of a new opera arose during a dinner among friends, when I turned the conversation, by chance, on Shakespeare and on Boito. At the mention of Othello I saw Verdi fix his eyes on me, with suspicion, but with interest. He had certainly understood; he had certainly reacted. I believed the time was ripe.
Suggestions were made, despite initial skepticism on the part of the composer, that Boito would be interested in creating a new libretto based upon the play. Within several days, Ricordi approached Verdi with the request that he would like to visit Sant' Agata "with a friend" in September. Verdi's reaction was clearly non-committal: "I wish absolutely to avoid committing myself The best thing... is for him to send me the finished poem".
Meanwhile, Boito began work on the libretto in spite of illness and, by late October/early November had sent a copy of the work so far. After appealing to Giuseppina, Ricordi was told that the Verdis would be coming to Milan and that he would meet privately with Boito. However, she noted in her letter of 7 November: "Between ourselves, what Boito has so far written of the African seems to please him, and is very well done."
At this point the opera was being referred to as Iago rather than Otello, due to the tradition—"an unwritten law of the theatre"—that any new opera would have a new title rather than that of one still in the repertoire, in this case by Rossini.
From libretto to first performance: 1879 to 1887
The process of writing the first drafts of the libretto and the years of their revision, with Verdi all along not promising anything, dragged on. As Walker charts it, the opera was completed:
in three comparatively short bouts of composition: the first, very brief, was at Genoa in March 1884 ; the second, the principal one, at Genoa from December 1884 to April 1885; the third at Sant' Agata from the middle of September to early October 1885.
By late August 1881, it appears that the text of the finale of act 3, over which there had been some considerable discussion was sent to Verdi, who responded in a long letter from Milan regarding his feelings about its overall structure, the role of the chorus, and other issues. Throughout 1882 and 1883 very little happened, although during the winter of 1883 Verdi and Boito met in Genoa where the Verdis spent their winters, but it prompted Ricordi for three Christmases in a row to send a cake to Verdi with the figure of the Moor—in chocolate—on the top. In order to keep information about the composition within the group, this gesture may have been the cause for the name given to the project for many years, "chocolate", as in Boito's letter of 1864 noting that "the manufacture of chocolate was going ahead".
Early the following year, Verdi began to compose and on 20 March 1884, in a letter from Boito to Ricordi, the librettist announced that Verdi had begun with the "opening of first act and seems to be working with fervor". There then occurred an event which unsettled both Verdi and Boito, and which nearly caused the project to come to a complete stop. While attending a banquet in Naples following the successful presentation of his opera Mefistofele, Boito gave an interview to a journalist and, in trying to keep information about the proposed Otello as quiet as possible, appears to have been misquoted by another journalist who overheard part of the conversation. The key point was that Boito, himself a composer, appeared to want to compose the music for Otello himself. When Verdi read this in a Milan newspaper, he was horrified and, in a letter to Faccio stated that he wanted Faccio to directly tell the librettist that "I will give him his manuscript intact, without a shadow of resentment, without rancor of any kind".
When he heard of the newspaper report, Boito was horrified. Writing immediately to Verdi, he states:
The theme and my libretto are yours by right of conquest. You alone can set Othello to music—all the dramatic creations you have given us proclaim the truth.
... no other subject in the world can distract me, not even Shakespeare's Othello, could distract me from my theme.
It is predestined for you. Create it. You had begun work upon it take up you pen again and write me soon: 'Dear Boito, do me the favour of altering these verses, etc. etc...'
Verdi's response, which came right away was quite blunt: in addition to complaining of his age, his years of service, and raising other objections, he states: "The conclusion is that all this has cast a chill over this Otello, and stiffened the hand that had begun to trace out a few bars!", but, in total contrast, Boito appears to have simply decided to carry on. Albeit "somewhat disquieted", he immediately proposes "a sort of evil Credo I did... for my own comfort and personal satisfaction, because I felt the need of doing it". On 3 May, Verdi wrote back, calming this down: "Most beautiful this Credo; most powerful and wholly Shakespearian... it would be well to leave this Otello in peace for a bit... "we shall be able to talk it over again, and by then with the necessary calm". Boito did visit Verdi in September for three days.
"It seems impossible, but it's true all the same! I'm busy, writing!!... without purpose, without worries, without thinking of what will happen next..." So Verdi wrote to Boito, with a request for a few more lines for act two, to which the librettist immediately responded: "One can't escape one's destiny, and by a law of intellectual affinity that tragedy of Shakespeare's is predestined for you".
Verdi's second burst of creative energy lasted until mid-April 1885, and was followed by the usual summer break and a lack of any activity. He confesses to Boito in a letter of 10 September of that year, when he invites him to come to Sant'Agata the following Sunday, stating "since I've been here I've done nothing!" It was during this time that the fourth act was pulled together. Walker speculates that Boito's visit and his conversations with the composer must have had some effect on Verdi because, on 5 October, Verdi made the announcement: "I have finished the fourth act, and I breathe again".
Scoring took another year which, from January 1886 onward, involved the librettist in re-writes and additions at Verdi's request. It was at this time that it was decided to call the opera Otello rather than Iago. Verdi's letter to Boito in January settles the matter: "I would find it hypocritical not to call it Otello. Emanuele Muzio tells Ricordi in March that the love duet in act 1 was finished and performed.
In May, Verdi "hit upon the precise form of one of the most famous entrances in all opera" – Otello's "Esultate" – in act 1. Boito modified his verses accordingly. Other minor changes and proposed revisions were wrapped up into September so that Verdi could write to Ricordi on 9 September: "Tomorrow I shall send to Casa Ricordi, completely finished, all the first act and all scene vi of the third; and thus with the fourth, already sent, perhaps three-fifths of the Moor are ready".
But on 1 November 1886, in a laconic communication, Verdi was able to proclaim: "DEAR BOITO, It is finished! All honour to us!. Farewell. G. VERDI". This left only a few minor tweaks to be done, with Boito providing two more lines in December and Verdi writing to him on the 18th saying "I have just consigned to the last acts of Otello! Poor Othello!... He won't come back here any more!!!" The librettist replied: "The Moor will come back no more to knock on the door of the Palazzo Doria , but you will go to meet the Moor at La Scala. Otello exists. The great dream has become reality".