Otello discography

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This is a discography of Giuseppe Verdi's penultimate opera, Otello . It was first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887.

Contents

Otello has been recorded complete on disc and film a number of times since World War II, but most music-guide reviewers contend that a recording made of a 1947 NBC radio broadcast of the opera conducted by Arturo Toscanini and featuring singers Herva Nelli, Ramón Vinay and Giuseppe Valdengo, is musically the best of these versions. [1] RCA Victor has issued the Toscanini recording several times on commercial LPs and on CD in digitally remastered form. In addition, performances of Otello were captured live as early as the 1920s (at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London) and the 1930s (at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, the latter via the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts). They, too, are available on CD reissues. A wide variety of stage performances dating from the 1950s to the present day are also to be had on CD or on DVD.

Audio and video recordings

YearOtello
Desdemona
Iago
Cassio
Emilia
Conductor
Orchestra and chorus
Label [2]
1931–1932Nicola Fusati
Maria Carbone
Apollo Granforte
Piero Girardi
Tamara Beltacchi
Carlo Sabajno
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
CD: Preiser Records
Cat: 20012
1938 Giovanni Martinelli
Elisabeth Rethberg
Lawrence Tibbett
Nicholas Massue
Thelma Votipka
Ettore Panizza
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Naxos Historical
Cat: 8.111018-19
1941 Giovanni Martinelli
Stella Roman
Lawrence Tibbett
Alessio de Paolis
Thelma Votipka
Ettore Panizza
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Arkadia
Cat: 50003
1944 Torsten Ralf
Hilde Konetzni
Paul Schöffler
Josef Witt
Elena Nikolaidi
Karl Böhm
Wiener Staatsoper orchestra and chorus
Performed in German
CD: Myto
Cat: MCD 922.60
1946 Torsten Ralf
Stella Roman
Leonard Warren
Alessio de Paolis
Martha Lipton
George Szell
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Walhall
Cat: WLCD 0107
1947 Ramón Vinay
Herva Nelli
Giuseppe Valdengo
Virginio Assandri
Nan Merriman
Arturo Toscanini
NBC Symphony Orchestra and chorus
LP: RCA Victor
Cat: LM-6107
Decca Cat: RB 16093-5
CD: RCA Victor
Cat: 60302
1948 Giovanni Martinelli
June Haas-Kelly
Cesare Bardelli
John Carmen Rossi
Mildred Ippolito
Giuseppe Bamboschek
Orchestra and chorus of La Scala Opera
CD: Grammofono
Cat: 2000 AB 78.935/36
1948 Ramón Vinay
Licia Albanese
Leonard Warren
John Garris
Martha Lipton
Fritz Busch
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Preiser
Cat: 90377
1950 Mario Del Monaco
Delia Rigal
Carlos Guichandut
Eugenio Valori
Emma Brizzi
Antonino Votto
Teatro Colon orchestra and chorus
CD: Myto
Cat: 004 H051
1951 Ramón Vinay
Carla Martinis
Paul Schöffler
Anton Dermota
Sieglinde Wagner
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Vienna Philharmonic and Wiener Staatsoper chorus
CD: EMI
Cat: CMS 5 65751-2
1951Gino Sarri
Anna La Polla
Antonio Manca Serra
Athos Cesarini
Ada Landi
Alberto Paoletti
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
CD: Preiser Records
Cat: 20031
1953-54 Set Svanholm
Aase Nordmo-Lovberg
Sigurd Björling
Arne Ohlson
Bette Björling
Sixten Ehrling
Kungliga Hovkapellet and chorus
Performed in Swedish
CD: Preiser
Cat: 90754
1954 Mario Del Monaco
Renata Tebaldi
Leonard Warren
Giuseppe Zampieri
Anna Maria Canali
Antonino Votto
La Scala
CD: Melodram
Cat: CDM 270101
1954 Mario Del Monaco
Renata Tebaldi
Aldo Protti
Piero de Palma
Luisa Ribacchi
Alberto Erede
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus
CD: Decca
Cat: 440 245-2
1955 Ramón Vinay
Gré Brouwenstijn
Otakar Kraus
John Lanigan
Noreen Berry
Rafael Kubelik
Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
CD: Royal Opera House Heritage
Cat: ROHS 001
1958 Mario Del Monaco
Victoria de los Angeles
Leonard Warren
Paul Franke
Rosalind Elias
Fausto Cleva
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Pristine
Cat: Paco154
1958 Ramón Vinay
Antonietta Stella
Giuseppe Taddei
Italo Pasini
Zaira Negroni
Thomas Beecham
Teatro Colón
CD: IDIS
Cat: 6547/48
1959 Mario Del Monaco
Gabriella Tucci
Tito Gobbi
Mariano Caruso
Anna Di Stasio
Alberto Erede
NHK Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
CD: Opera d'Oro, OPD-1160.
1960 Mario Del Monaco
Floriana Cavalli
Tito Gobbi
Agostino Lazzari
Dora Minarchi
Franco Capuana
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
CD: Myto
Cat: 00267
1960 Jon Vickers
Leonie Rysanek
Tito Gobbi
Florindo Andreolli
Miriam Pirazzini
Tullio Serafin
Rome Opera Orchestra and Chorus
LP: RCA Gold Seal
Cat: AGL3-1969
CD: RCA Red Seal
Cat: 8875196362
1961 Mario Del Monaco
Renata Tebaldi
Aldo Protti
Nello Romanato
Ana Raquel Satre
Herbert von Karajan
Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopernchor
CD: Decca
Cat: 028941161826
1967 James McCracken
Montserrat Caballé
Tito Gobbi
Ermanno Lorenzi
Shirley Love
Zubin Mehta
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
CD: Living Stage
Cat: LS 4035175
1968 James McCracken
Gwyneth Jones
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Piero de Palma
Anna Di Stasio
John Barbirolli
Philharmonia Orchestra and Ambrosian Chorus
CD: EMI
Cat: 65296
1973 Jon Vickers
Mirella Freni
Peter Glossop
Aldo Bottion
Stefania Malagù
Herbert von Karajan
Berliner Philharmoniker and Chor der Deutsche Oper Berlin
CD: EMI
Cat: CMS 769 3082
1976 Plácido Domingo
Mirella Freni
Piero Cappuccilli
Giuliano Ciannella
Jone Jori
Carlos Kleiber
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
CD: Opera d'Oro
Cat: OPD 7005
1977 Carlo Cossutta
Julia Varady
Piero Cappuccilli
Benito Maresca
Gudrun Wewezow
Carlos Kleiber
Bayerische Staatsoper
CD: Golden Melodram
Cat: GM 5.0061
1977 Carlo Cossutta
Margaret Price
Gabriel Bacquier
Peter Dvorsky
Jane Berbié
Georg Solti
Wiener Philharmoniker Wiener Staatsoperchor and Wiener Sängerknaben
CD: Decca
Cat: 440-045-2
1978 Plácido Domingo
Renata Scotto
Sherrill Milnes
Paul Crook
Jean Kraft
James Levine
National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
LP: RCA Red Seal
Cat: CRL3-2951
CD: RCA Red Seal
Cat: 8883729722
1978 Jon Vickers
Renata Scotto
Cornell MacNeil
Frank Little
Jean Kraft
James Levine
The Metropolitan Opera
DVD: Met Opera
Cat: 811357012185
1982 Vladimir Atlantov
Kiri Te Kanawa
Piero Cappuccilli
Antonio Bevacqua
Flora Rafanelli
Zoltán Peskó
Verona Arena
DVD: Warner Music Vision
Cat: 4509 99214 2
1983 Charles Craig
Rosalind Plowright
Neil Howlett
Bonaventura Bottone
Shelagh Squires
Mark Elder
English National Opera
Performed in English
CD: Chandos
Cat: CHAN 3068
1986 Plácido Domingo
Katia Ricciarelli
Justino Díaz
Ezio di Cesare
Petra Malakova
Lorin Maazel
La Scala orchestra and chorus
( Othello , film directed by Franco Zeffirelli. [3] )
DVD: MGM
Cat: 0 27616 88420 6
1987 Plácido Domingo
Anna Tomowa-Sintow
Renato Bruson
Kaludi Kaludov
Margarita Lilowa
Zubin Mehta
Choir and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera
CD: Orfeo
Cat: C698072I
1991 Giuseppe Giacomini
Margaret Price
Matteo Manuguerra
Dino Di Domenico
Martine Mahé
Alain Lombard
Orchestra National Bourdeaux Aquitaine
CD: Forlane
Cat: 216 774
1991 Luciano Pavarotti
Kiri Te Kanawa
Leo Nucci
Anthony Rolfe-Johnson
Elzbieta Ardam
Georg Solti
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
CD: Decca (London)
Cat: 433 669-2
1992 Plácido Domingo
Kiri Te Kanawa
Sergei Leiferkus
Robin Leggate
Claire Powell
Georg Solti
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Chorus and Orchestra
DVD: Kultur Video
Cat: 0 32031 14929 8
1994 Plácido Domingo
Cheryl Studer
Sergei Leiferkus
Ramón Vargas
Denyce Graves
Myung-whun Chung
Opéra Bastille, Paris
CD: Deutsche Grammophon
Cat: 439 805-2
1995 Plácido Domingo
Renée Fleming
James Morris
Richard Croft
Jane Bunnell
James Levine
Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus
DVD: Deutsche Grammophon
Cat: 00440 073 0929
1996 Nicola Martinucci
Miriam Gauci
Eduard Tumagian
Mauricio Septien
Mabel Perelstein
Alexander Rahbari
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia
CD: Koch
Cat: DICD 929 435-6
2001Christian Franz
Emily Magee
Valery Alexeev
Stephan Rügamer
Katharina Kammerloher
Daniel Barenboim
Berliner Staatsoper
DVD: ArtHaus Musik
Cat: 100 347
2001 Plácido Domingo
Barbara Frittoli
Leo Nucci
Cesare Catani
Rossana Rinaldi
Riccardo Muti
La Scala orchestra and chorus
DVD: TDK
Cat: 8 2412100019 6
2006 José Cura
Krassimira Stoyanova
Lado Atanelli
Vittorio Grigolo
Ketevan Kemoklidze
Antoni Ros Marbà
Orchestra and Chorus of Gran Teatro del Liceo
DVD: Opus Arte
Cat: OA 0963D
2008 Aleksandrs Antonenko
Marina Poplavskaya
Carlos Álvarez
Stephen Costello
Barbara di Castri
Riccardo Muti
Vienna Philharmonic
Salzburg Festival
Blu-ray: Naxos
Cat: 701504
2010 Simon O'Neill
Anne Schwanewilms
Gerald Finley
Allan Clayton
Eufemia Tufano
Colin Davis
London Symphony Orchestra and chorus
CD: LSO Live
Cat: 0700
2013 Aleksandrs Antoņenko
Krassimira Stoyanova
Carlo Guelfi
Juan Francisco Gatell
Barbara di Castri
Riccardo Muti
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
CD: CSO Resound
Cat: CSOR 901 1301
2014 Robert Dean Smith
Raffaella Angeletti
Sebastian Catana
Luis Dámasco
Marifé Nogales
Friedrich Haider
Oviedo Filarmonía
CD: Naxos
Cat: 866035758
2015 Aleksandrs Antoņenko
Sonya Yoncheva
Željko Lučić
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Metropolitan Opera
(Recorded live 17 October) [4]
Streaming video in HD: Met Opera on Demand [5]
2017 Nikolai Schukoff
Melody Moore
Lester Lynch
Jun Ho You
Helena Zubanovich
Lawrence Foster
Gulbenkian Orchestra and choir
CD: Pentatone
Cat: PTC 5186562
2018 Jonas Kaufmann,
Maria Agresta
Marco Vratogna
Antonio Pappano
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
Blu-ray: Sony
Cat: 88985491969
2020 Jonas Kaufmann,
Federica Lombardi
Carlos Álvarez
Liparit Avetisyan
Virginie Verrez
Antonio Pappano
Chorus and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
CD: Sony
Cat:19439707932

Extracts

Individual arias, duets and scenes from Otello have been committed to disc by many celebrated tenors, baritones and sopranos since acceptable audio technology was first developed in the early 20th century. The best of these recorded extracts have been reissued on CD and make for fascinating comparative listening. Recordings made in the early 1900s by the creators of the roles of Otello and Iago, namely Francesco Tamagno and Victor Maurel, are among those now available in digital formats.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBC Symphony Orchestra</span> American radio orchestra

The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, the parent corporation of the National Broadcasting Company especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony Orchestra performed weekly radio broadcast concerts with Toscanini and other conductors and several of its players served in the house orchestra for the NBC Radio Network. NBC encouraged the public’s perception of the Orchestra as a full-time organization exclusively at Toscanini’s beck and call, but Fortune disclosed in 1938 that these instrumentalists played other radio—and, later, television—broadcasts: “the Toscanini concerts have been allocated only fifteen of the thirty hours a week each man works, including rehearsals.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arturo Toscanini</span> Italian conductor (1867–1957)

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career, he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954), and this led to his becoming a household name, especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renata Tebaldi</span> Italian opera singer (1922–2004)

Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera. Often considered among the great opera singers of the 20th century, she focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires. Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini called her voice "la voce d'angelo", and La Scala music director Riccardo Muti called her "one of the greatest performers with one of the most extraordinary voices in the field of opera."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Warren</span> Operatic baritone (1911–1960)

Leonard Warren was an American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Especially noted for his portrayals of the leading baritone roles in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, he had few rival baritones in his time. His power and range were the highlights of his vocal instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Tamagno</span> Italian opera singer

Francesco Tamagno was an Italian operatic dramatic tenor who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he sang Otello in the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera. He is also the earliest Italian tenor of note to have left a sizeable body of recordings of his voice. He was one of the first international male public figures to admit that he was the single parent and caregiver of a daughter from her birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezio Pinza</span> Italian opera singer (1892–1957)

Ezio Fortunato Pinza was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Zenatello</span> Italian opera singer (1876–1949)

Giovanni Zenatello was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank. Otello became his most famous operatic role but his repertoire also included French roles. In 1904, he created the part of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Peerce</span> American opera singer (1904–1984)

Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramón Vinay</span> Chilean operatic tenor

Ramón Vinay was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Otello.

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Victor Alberto de Sabata was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Martinelli</span> Italian operatic tenor

Giovanni Martinelli was an Italian operatic spinto tenor. He was associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well. Martinelli was one of the most famous tenors of the 20th century, enjoying a long career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and appearing at other major international theatres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Crooks</span> American opera singer

Richard Alexander Crooks was an American tenor and a leading singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonietta Stella</span> Italian operatic soprano (1929–2022)

Maria Antonietta Stella was an Italian operatic soprano, and one of the most prominent Italian spinto sopranos of the 1950s and 1960s. She made her debut in Spoleto in 1950, as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore, a year later at Rome Opera, as Leonora in La forza del destino, in 1954 at La Scala in Milan, as Desdemona in Otello, in 1955 at the Royal Opera House in London as Aida, and in 1956 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, in the same role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Valdengo</span> Italian baritone

Giuseppe Valdengo was an Italian operatic baritone. Opera News said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were invariably satisfying — bold and assured in attack but scrupulously musical."

Antonio Magini-Coletti was a leading Italian baritone who had a prolific career in Europe and the United States during the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. A versatile artist, he appeared in several opera world premieres but was particularly associated with the works of Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner and the verismo composers. He was also an accomplished exponent of the bel canto repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical classical music recordings</span>

Historical classical music recordings are generally classical music recordings made prior to the stereo era of vinyl disc recording, which began around 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arturo Toscanini discography</span>

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century. Toscanini was a prolific recording artist, having conducted many recordings from 1920 until his retirement in 1954.

<i>Otello</i> (Toscanini recording)

The 1947 recording of Verdi's Otello by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra and chorus is regarded as one of the most notable early Verdi opera recordings. The role of Otello was sung by Ramón Vinay, Desdemona by Herva Nelli, and Iago by Giuseppe Valdengo, and Cassio by tenor Virginio Assandri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldo Bertocci</span> Italian singer

Aldo Bertocci was an Italian operatic tenor who sang both comprimario and leading roles in a career spanning the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. He sang in the world premieres of nine 20th century operas, most of them in performances broadcast on the RAI, Italy's national public-service radio. His discography includes live recordings of several rarities such as Mascagni's Silvano and Leoncavallo's Zingari. Bertocci was born in Turin and from 1974 lived in Cassano Valcuvia where he died shortly before his 88th birthday.

This is a discography of Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, Falstaff. It was first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 9 February 1893.

References

  1. Unk: "I still rank the Toscanini Otello with the famous Scala Tosca recording under De Sabata, as one of the finest opera recordings ever made — not of course comparable technically with the modern stereophonic achievements — but possessing a ..." in Opera (London), Vol. 20, 1969. p. 1080
  2. Recordings on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk
  3. In the film, some of the music was omitted, but the soundtrack album of the film, released on EMI, features the complete opera.
  4. CID: 356065, Met Opera Archive.
  5. Otello (2015) at Met Opera on Demand.