Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Arrigo Boito

Based on the play of the same title Othello by William Shakespeare

Opera in four acts (1887)

In Italian with Chinese surtitle

Conductor: Daniele Rustioni
With Bayerische Staatsoper

 

Otello – Arsen Soghomonyan
Iago – Aleksei Isaev
Desdemona – Ailyn Peréz
Cassio – Long Long
Roderigo – George Vîrban
Lodovico - Bálint Szabó
Montano – Roman Chabaranok
Herold – Vitor Bispo
Emilia – Natalie Lewis

* All information on programme and duration is subject to change.

 

 

Like a scream, the primal power of the orchestra shatters the silence; from one moment to the next, a storm rages off the coast of Cyprus. The wind whips, lightning cuts through the tumultuous sky: Giuseppe Verdi anticipated the turmoil in his characters’ hearts in the revolting nature. His penultimate opera, with which he returns to the musical drama after a long creative hiatus, grabs the listener by the throat and does not let go until the inevitable end. How Otello, the successful general, becomes entangled in Iago’s web of intrigue; how the disastrous seed of jealousy flourishes and Otello’s love for his wife Desdemona begins to disintegrate on their wedding day; how Desdemona, “although she suspects or senses that this disaster is coming and that Otello is capable of killing her out of jealousy, still persists” (Amélie Niermeyer) – with his Otello, Verdi created an operatic drama that was concise, direct, intense and beautiful until then and remains unsurpassed to this day.

 

 

Daniele Rustioni studied Organ, Composition, Piano and Conducting in Milan. He then continued his studies in Siena and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was “Jette Parker” Young Artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where he assisted Antonio Pappano. He made his debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 2007, followed by further debuts in 2011 with Aida at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, in 2012 with La Bohème at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and in 2017 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he will be Principal Guest Conductor from 2025. From 2012 to 2014 he was Musical Director of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari and from 2014 to 2020 Chief Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana.

 

He has been Chief Conductor at the Opéra National de Lyon since 2017 and was also appointed Music Director there in 2022. From 2019 to 2024, he was also Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. Conducting engagements have taken him to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Opéra national de Paris, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Zurich Opera House, as well as to the festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, the Rossini Opera Festival and the BBC Proms. In 2024 he was appointed “Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” of the French Republic and in 2022 he was named “Best Conductor” at the International Opera Awards. He was Principal Guest Conductor at the Bayerische Staatsoper from 2021 to 2023. In the 2022/23 season, he conducted Aida and Don Carlo at the Festival “Münchner Opernfestspiele”, among others. He returned for Carmen in the 2023/24 season. In 2024/25, he conducted the new production of Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci, and in the 2025/26 season, he will conduct the revivals of Otello, Der Freischütz and Ariadne auf Naxos.

 

 

The Bayerische Staatsoper is one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world. It has been the venue for major European premieres since 1700, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Idomeneo, re di Creta in 1781; four major operas of Richard Wagner (including Tristan und Isolde and two acts of his Opus Magnum Der Ring des Nibelungen) and Richard Strauss’ Capriccio. Today, the Bayerische Staatsoper – together with the Bayerische Staatsorchester and the Bayerische Staatsballett – offers a dense repertoire of almost 350 opera and ballet performances a year. In 2023, the Bayerische Staastoper was voted “Best opera company of the year” by the international critics’ of the magazine Opera.