page_title: Otello (Rossini)
section_title: Roles
hierarchical_section_title: Otello (Rossini) / Roles
caption_attribution_description: Portrait par François Bouchot (1800-1842) de la célèbre cantatrice Maria Malibran, dite "La Malibran", (1808-1836) que chanta Alfred de Musset dans des Stances célèbres. Elle est représentée dans le rôle de Desdémone qu'elle interprèta en 1834, dans l'Othello de Rossini.
context_page_description: Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsa. The work, which premiered in December 1816, is based on a French adaptation of the story, not Shakespeare's play Othello as neither Rossini nor his librettist knew the English drama.
  The plot of the libretto differs greatly from Shakespeare's play in that it takes place wholly in Venice, not mainly on Cyprus, and the dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. The role of Iago is much less diabolical than Shakespeare's play or Verdi's 1887 opera Otello, which was based on it. Shakespeare derived his play from the story Un Capitano Moro by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565.In further contrast, the role of Roderigo, a sub-plot in Shakespeare and Verdi, is very prominent in Rossini's version—some of the most difficult and brilliant music being assigned to the character Rodrigo. The roles of Otello, Iago, and Rodrigo are all composed for the tenor voice.
  Rossini's Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare.
caption: Maria Malibran as Desdemona by François Bouchot (1834)
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