Verdi: Otello
This is Plácido Domingo's third recording ofOtelloand arguably his best. Besides benefiting from years of study and restudy, the older, rougher, darker Domingo voice is better suited to the role than his prettier, younger self. Also, the title character's rage always seemed a bit forced in previous recordings; not so here. His colleagues aren't always at peak level of inspiration but they're consistently excellent. Sergei Leiferkus's metallic, Russian sound is ideal for Iago: besides being sinister, he sounds like an outsider. Conductor Myung-Whun Chung is anything but a routinist, particularly with the Bastille forces that he worked with intensively for years. This is a fine modern recording of a great, great opera.--David Patrick Stearns