PRESS

OPERA NEWS
by John W. Freeman

"Rossini's Otello (1816) today sounds a lot more dated than Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which preceded it by just a few months. Unlike the freewheeling opera buffa, Otello harks back to opera seria, the vehicle of Rossini's previous dramas, Aureliano in Palmira and Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra. When Eve Queler and her Opera Orchestra of New York revived Otello (with substantial cuts) for a Carnegie Hall concert performance on January 17, they faced the problem of finding three tenor principals, plus a baritone, all capable of tossing off cascades of coloratura — a vocal style three-quarters of a century removed from Verdi's more familiar setting of Otello.

"Fortunately, such singers exist again today...Otello is a bel canto score, calling for lighter, more agile voices. The OONY Orchestra, pared down a little, sounded appropriately restrained. The chorus, this time the Oratorio Society of New York, was still huge but a third smaller than that used for [Guillaume] Tell. Queler controlled her forces in such a way as to support the soloists without pushing them too often.

"As Elmiro, Desdemona's father, Daniel Mobbs showed a grasp of baritone coloratura and created an authoritative if too sympathetic presence, missing the haughtiness of this demanding parent."