This new recording of Verdi’s Otello possesses numerous attributes: Melody Moore’s Desdemona, Nikolai Schukoff’s Otello, and the very inspired Gulbenkian Orchestra coupled with the Gulbenkian Choir, admirably set and extremely precise, including in the highly virtuoso passages. It’s worth mentioning that Verdi’s last drama – the composer ended his career with the comic opera Falstaff – completed in 1887 after sixteen years of lyrical silence (his previous work was Aida in 1871) is spectacularly at odds with his previous language; there are few isolated motifs and recitatives, in favour of a much more modern fluidity of speech, closer to the Shakespeare drama, and a tight plot focusing on the characters and immediate actions of each of them. Lawrence Foster's interpretation highlights this continuity. Interestingly Arturo Toscanini was one of the cellists for the world premiere on February 5th, 1887 at La Scala in Milan. © SM/Qobuz