Trouble in Venice as tenor spurns white-face Otello
OperaFrancesco Meli is due to sing Verdi’s Otello at La Fenice.
He expected the director to give him some make up to darken his features when portraying the great Moor. But the director Fabio Cerese refused, saying he did not want the character depicted that way.
Meli has gone to the media, telling Il Giornale: ‘I do not agree with being a white Otello.’
He has more to say: ‘Otello’s geographical origin and therefore his skin color have a dramatic value; the thesis is that the white Iago is the evil one who goes to instigate Othello, leading him to commit a crime.
‘Opera has lost the connotations of its identity, (which) musicals and ballet still retain. When you go to see Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake you want to see the swans, the feathers, just as no one dreams of the Phantom of the Opera set in the Bronx or in a garbage dump. The paradox is that we have opened ourselves to dialogue with the public, but we are losing the public.’
Go argue with that.
I’ve seen middle-aged women pretending to be horny page boys in Le Nozze di Figaro, where being a horny page boy is absolutely integral to their identity in the piece. I’ve seen singers in their 40s play teenage lovers in Romeo et Juliette. I’ve seen very mortal singers play gods, dragons, and Rhinemaidens in Wagner. I’ve seen men made of flesh play moving cemetary statues in Don Giovanni. I’ve seen Egyptian guards in the Met’s production of Aida, who in the video recording have handlebar moustaches fit for a motorcycle club in Tennessee. I’ve even heard Japanese teenage girls singing in Italian in Madame Butterfly.
But sure, all that is ‘acting’, but we have to draw the line at ‘if Otello isn’t in blackface no one will believe him’?
The fact that Otello is different–different from everyone else on stage–is central to the plot.
As is the age difference between Butterfly and Pinkerton. Not that we have any issue having them played by middle aged singers who look very middle aged.
Or, you know, the fact that Leonora can actually pass for a credible hot young man.
The point is that art is – always – about the suspension of disbelief, to various degrees. Even hyperrealistic art. And there’s a weird fixation with ‘Otello must be black’ that we don’t apply to anything else.
But he is black,so why make him white,its like casting james bond as a woman.its all woke nonsense gone mad.on another note,im sick of these wokey opera directors destroying operas with ridiculous sets,costumes etcthey have been given far too much control.give control back to the singers,after all its them we want to see.
You don’t ’make him white’, do you? You just let him be played by whoever plays him well.
Yes, but it is not the fact that Otello is a Moor that defines his vulnerability to Iago’s evil plotting, but his unhinged temperament. Such temperaments are not dependent on skin colour.
When Otello’s skin colour is taken as a racist slur, this implies the acceptance of the idea that all dark-skinned people are supposed to be unhinged, which is a kind of inverted racism. And thus people go around in loops.
In the original story, Otello is the courageous, victorious king, who is being subverted by a jealous, nasty character. When this is read as a covert racist slur, it is taking ancient prejudice seriously, and that element should simply be ignored because being nonsensical. The same with the ‘dog whistle’ accusations of the plots in Wagner’s operas where nasty characters are supposed to be depicted as Jews but only in such a way to be only understood by people who are already antisemitic.
If people see a problem with Otello being a Moor, they should lay the responsibility at Shakespeare’s feet, but let Otello be dark, real or with make-up.
Sure – but Shakespeare wrote in the 17th century. We perform his plays differently from how he did it, even in period performances. There’s a gulf between Vivaldi’s opera house and today’s (and not only the castrati).
So there are obvious limits to ‘well in Shakespeare’s time it was ok to wear blackface’.
Or at the feet of Cinthio, maybe.
Billy: ‘Maybe it’s a good idea to have Otello in white face, and Iago in black face instead. And Desdemona could be trans or something so.’
More importantly, there are several black tenors capable of singing the role at international level, who should be considered first for the role.
That’s terribly racist, he’s a Moor, so it has to be a dramatic tenor of North African/Middle Eastern descent.
Also he should be a Muslem and with a track record in ancient-style naval battle victories.
The best singer should be considered first for the role.
Haven’t seen a dark-skinned Otello, Aida, Monostatos for years.
I can never understand why these PC people approve of a man dressing as a woman but then say a man cannot wear dark make-up to appear like the character he is playing.
JTS your comment really made me think for a bit, which – to me anyway – makes it more valuable than easily more than 99% of online comments. And while I probably mostly disagree with your thesis, it’s a reasonable one. But then I thought a bit more (again, thumbs up) and I’d suggest that, at least in many cases, it’s not the same group of folks expressing these views.
Congratulations, you just discovered structural forces.
The man stands there and says he is black. The others so refer to him. Get real. (Or in this case made up).
Excellent comment. The actor should just say that he identifies as black and wishes to enhance his looks.A friend of mine has a great great grandfather who was black. But he, my friend, looks pretty white. Is he BAME or not? In one way perhaps we all are. Waiting for the thumbs down.
Are there even any people in the audience to care?
It’s an insult to the elderly when young actors play them as doddering old fools.
Bring back blackface!
He is no Otello anyway so what does it matter if he’s black or white
Quite correct,now francesco merli on the other hand was a good otello along with vinay and best of all del monaco
I’ve seen Cyrano de Bergerac without the big nose.
I’ve seen Acis and Galatea in an Irish pub.
Your job is to sing, not to think