Greenbrier Valley Theatre (GVT), in partnership with The Met: Live in HD, presents Guiseppe Verdi’s Otello on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 12:55 p.m. The simulcast will run approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission. Dr. James Caplinger, from the University of Charleston, will give a complimentary lecture beginning at 12:15 p.m. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $12 for seniors and $10 for children/students. For tickets or more information, contact GVT’s Box Office at 304-645-3838 or visit www.gvtheatre.org.
Starring breakout soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona opposite Aleksandrs Antonenko as the jealous title character, Otello also features Dimitri Pittas as Cassio, Günther Groissböck as Lodovico and Željko Lučić as the fiendish Iago. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts this production and has also conducted La traviata (2013) and Rusalka (2014) for the Metropolitan Opera.
“The biggest star on Monday was Yannick Nézet-Séguin leading the ever-fluid Met Orchestra in a compelling and sensitive reading of Verdi’s score that never lost its focus on the narrative and emotional arc of the story while mining the depths of this beautiful, shifting, chiaroscuro music.” —Washington Post
Otello premiered in 1887 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and Verdi wrote the title character for Francesco Tamagno, who performed Otello 13 times. For the past 120 years, the role has drawn superb performers, including Giovanni Martinelli, Mario Del Monaco and James McCracken.
