Otello

Abstract The cast at the premiere included Francesco Tamagno (Otello), Victor Maurel (Iago), and Romilda Pantaleoni (Desdemona). As the 1870s progressed, Verdi seemed increasingly isolated from current trends in Italian music, in particular by the tendency of both public and composers to look outside Italy (to France and, later, to Germany) for new ideas and aesthetic attitudes. It is against this background that we should examine his reluctance to write new works after the Messa da Requiem of 1874: Verdi was a composer who, after being at the forefront of Italian musical taste for more than two decades, found himself accused of being oldfashioned, out of touch with the times; the fact that he probably felt so himself only exacerbated the situation. Those who sought to lure him out of self-imposed retirement, among whom the prime mover was the new young director of the Ricordi publishing house, Giulio Ricordi, had to tread carefully. Ricordi eventually teamed up with Arrigo Boito, the librettist and composer, who in the 1860s had been one of the most visible of the Italian avant-garde, but whose respect for the old maestro grew with the years and with Boito’s own gradual conservatism. In June 1879 Ricordi and Boito raised with Verdi the possibility of an Otello. Verdi betrayed cautious enthusiasm, and by the end of the year Boito had produced a draft libretto, full of ingenious new rhythmic devices but with an extremely firm dramatic thread.