Above: Karah Son as Desdemona and Yonghoon Lee in the role of Otello gave riveting vocal and dramatic performances . Featured image : the cast of ‘Otello ‘ on the striking set by designer Hans Schavernoch. Photo credit: Prudence Upton.

The website promoting Opera Australia’s Summer Season urges us to ‘Escape Ordinary’. We are definitely exposed to the extraordinary in this revival production of Otello by director Harry Kupfer, first seen in its striking mid-twentieth century guise on the Sydney Opera House stage in 2003 .

The Shakespearean themes of loving unwisely, loving too well and being easy prey for jealous, bitter villainy leap out at us from the busy stage. The elaborately costumed cast deliver this compact  Shakespearean tragedy with amazing physicality. The  increasingly shocking scenes are presented over, behind and through  the raked stage design by Hans Schavernoch.

Vivid, detailed production values on the tilted, entropic storybook stage highlight the teetering vulnerablities of Otello and his new, equally  infatuated wife. We get fragile pride of the wealthy public and adored military dished up in buckets, beautifully lit from designs by Toby Sewell, whose opening storm scenes are terrifying. The public are further adorned  in a rich tapestry of designer outfits of  Yan Tax’s as they race around the set’s suitably precarious steepness.

The doomed love of Captain Otello and his fair Desdemona is believably delivered. There is perfectly measured stage chemistry between Yonghoon Lee (Otello) and Karah Son (Desdemona) who both craft solid representations of the legendary couple. Their hard-working delivery and exquisitely contoured variety of vocal lines are truly deserving of the calibre of colour present in Verdi’s soundscape.

There is tight direction of overwhelming crowd scenes or overheard dialogue with characters hidden on and around the stage structure.  Revival director Luke Joslin helps the well-paced success of the story’s deception and confusion as the heroes, victims and public hurtle towards the terrible end.

Above: Marco Vratogna as Iago with ensemble cast. Photo credit: Prudence Upton.

The action exhausts us in a way Shakespeare would have wanted it to. We  follow Otello being turned against his chaste wife by the officer he did not promote. The production values emphasise the status-hungry Cypriots’ love of victory and power. They are a gasping,  non-Greek-chorus horde, swathed in elaborate  event dress, and emotionally straitjacketed military attire.

The danger of being wrought in the extreme by public opinion and suspicion emanates from this  composite set where the weather, alcohol, circumstantial evidence and suggestion can have bloody consequences as distinguished affection derails royally.

Baritone Marco Vratogna’s cloven footed, eagerly evil Iago is quite the superstar on this stage. He displays deft, diabolical and dramatically perfect action with powerhouse utterance to match Lee’s adroit tenor dialogue . His stage presence and use of the space at any pace shows him as the master of characterisation, manipulation and working up of the masses, drunk or sober. His ‘Credo in Dio crudel’ chills to the bone as it emergenes stridently above the orchestra in a dark but very fine musical moment.

Conductor Andrea Battistoni reaches deep into the score and offers us vivid and colourful effect to match the depths of dramatic intensity unfolding on stage. There is flexibility, forceful gesture and tense gentleness here whenever needed in a reading which is never tentative. The opening storm scenes are musically compelling to mirror the activity and creation of the elements.

Above : Virgilio Marino as Cassio with Opera Australia cast members. Photo Credit: Prudence Upton.

Verdi wrote fine moments for the chorus in this opera, and all chorus members and chorusmasters /music staff are to be commended on the immense power and richness of ensemble emotion.

This is heard in moments such as ‘Una vela’ (A sail!) and the praising of military victory in ‘Esultate!….’ (Rejoice!….) Their military precision of articulation as an ensemble enhancing the story development is shown off many times during this production. Their commentary surrounding the principals’ dialogue and reactions also have precision and spot-on balance in even the most delicate, suspenseful instances.

Soprano Karah Son is deservedly and very swiftly becoming the diva of this season. Her consistently excellent architecture evident across each role’s vocal and emotional trajectory is standout.  From her diminutive frame, especially here beside the hulking voices and stage presence of Iago and Otello, is never in the shadow.  From Son a scintillating stream of nuance fills the theatre sky as she paints the bravery of her character.

Karah Son’s control in sudden changes of accent or volume and in secure leaps into the high register also has her leap into our hearts. Despite being tossed up and down the set steps in this opera by an irrational Otello, she does not miss a beat as the meaty but never oversung nature of her vocal outcry is earnestly and accurately presented.

Her silvery, sorrowful-sweet attack on the Verdian phrasing is a highlight amongst the raucous, resounding atmosphere. This hectic opera can be almost too full of  the large ouitburst if variety is not made the most of where available and Son helps ensure this variety is maintained.

This soprano’s pre-death ‘Willow Song / Amen’ sequence is a night out on its own, and is edge-of-the-seat desperation , sung with a shimmering ease you could sink into in your fluffy nightgown.

Above :  Honest Iago (Marco Vratogna) and Otello (Yonghoon Lee). Photo credit: Prudence Upton.

Karah Son was ably supported in the great final scenes by her lady Emilia, Sian Sharp in this version. This gutsy role is here sung with rich, clear tone with strong movement of support and defying male cruelty as she help the sad denoument unwravel.

Some of Yan Tax’s most stunning costumes with regard to power dressing or soft flowing warmth are worn by Sharp’s Emilia. Costuming, energy and characteristion of the manipulated Cassio (in a vibrant depiction here by Virgilio Marino) are securely in place through a solid representation of this character amidst the crumbling network.

This is a must-see version of both Verdi’s opera and an adaption of Shakespeare’a classic tale. Come watch brilliant local opera and a hero with easily confused heart throwing away the jewel he was dangerously shocked to procure. The descent into recklessness is grippingly, shockingly retold here, and is worth a world of sighs.

Otello plays at the Dame Joan Theatre, Sydney Opera House until March 19.