Verdi's Othello eats through the spirit of Shakespeare's script.
Verdi's Othello is one of the must-see operas of his lifetime, as is his mother, Shakespeare's original plays. Comparing the recently screened Royal Theatre Royal (ROH) live version of the opera and shakespeare original, it is obvious that Verdi has eaten through the spirit of Shakespeare's script, and then reorganized the story, focusing the plot on the psychological relationship between Iagu, Othello, and Desdemona.
The tragedy of Othello's wife-killing is a famous crime in the history of literature, and Verdi omits Shakespeare's foreshadowing of the murder, which reveals the character and situation of the characters, that is, the foreshadowing of why the tragedy occurred. For example, Othello did not marry Desdemona, but "stole" her from her father, who was the patriarch of Venice, and if it were not for Iago manipulating Rodrigo, who was bent on getting her hands on her, to jump up and down and expose her, their hidden marriage would not have been discovered, and even so, they still did not receive the sincere blessing of the elders, and she was also cursed by her father, "She has fooled her father, and she will deceive you." Throughout the court standoff, the Senator had been insulting Othello's black (Moorish) identity, concluding that his daughter had "gone to fall in love with someone she was terrified of looking at" and that "he must have anesthetized her blood with a potent bait or a poison made of witchcraft." "Although he, like other big men, has been using Othello's war talents to pretend to value him. In other words, people are stressing to him that you deserve inferiority and don't deserve true love. Contemporary people understand that black people not only naturally can get love, but even have a strong sexual attraction that even Caucasians envy, and desdemona alone is a happy wife.
Verdi was able to make omissions, probably because the audience at that time was already very familiar with the original story of Shakespeare, familiar with the madness and extremes of his characters, not too surprised by Othello's credulity, and able to accept verdi's emotional music and simple plot together with the strong drama. He moves the story directly to Cyprus, the second location in the play, and the love process that the couple was forced to ask in the Venice court at the beginning was also adapted and moved to the wedding night of Othello and Desdemona, resulting in a famous duet in which the two exchanged heartfelt feelings. Desdemona not only loved his bravery, but also pitied his pain, the torments of exile, the sorrow of being a slave and wearing shackles, and this long and huge tenderness gave Othello great joy and comfort, "You love me because of my misfortune, and I love you because of your kindness." Jonas Kaufman (Othello) and Maria Agresta (Desdemona) were so tender that Othello even crawled at her feet and kissed her hand.
But Othello also sighed that joy made him afraid, preferring to die in the embrace of the ultimate love, which is both an ominous sound and a mental state that is better understood by contemporaries after the ultimate blows of Nagisa Oshima's "Sensory World" and Watanabe Junichi's "Paradise Lost". Their marriage, even Othello's only haven from the tension of life, collapses with tragic consequences. On the other hand, Desdemona has the innate innocence, delicacy, liveliness, and carefree nature of a rich woman, who is physically and mentally healthy and believes in God, and has no doubt that this love will last forever with the passage of time.
From a contemporary point of view, Othello was traumatized by post-war stress, and everything he had, social status, prosperity and even the initial good feelings aroused in his wife, were all based on military achievements. "Habitual violence has led me to use the ruthless battlefield as my soft sleeping bed." Desdemona, who has no social experience and does not understand the darkness of human nature, it is difficult to really heal the man's mental wounds with love, which is also the foreshadowing of the tragedy of the two people's love. Othello's deep inferiority allows him to believe that his wife has cheated on his subordinate, Cassio, because of a few rumors from Iaeagu and a handkerchief planted as evidence of stealing.
Verdi omitted it, probably because the focus of his depiction was Iaggu (Ludvik Tez), who was tragic and bloodless, and even wanted to use "Iagu" as the title. In shaping this character, Shakespeare has monologues and a large number of discordant manipulative words and deeds, but he does not directly summarize the man's nihilistic "faith" as Verdi did, that is, immersed in the fundamental evil, doing evil for the sake of evil. He confessed that he was a demon, believed in the ruthless god, felt the primal filth of his human being, was faithful to and wanted to carry out his evil mission, and he firmly believed that the righteous were hypocritical actors, that man would be toyed with by an unjust fate from birth to death, that heaven was a lie, and that after death was nothingness. This version of Iaeagu manually shifts the elaborate set on stage to symbolize his manipulation of people's hearts, events, and character relationships. There is a scene where he puts the devil mask on the face of Othello, who has collapsed due to burning jealousy, which is frightening.
The time saved after the change, Verdi not only used to aggravate the role of Iagu, but also to highlight Desdemona's interaction with different people and even the children's choir, highlighting her sense of holiness, the more innocent and affectionate she is, the more ignorant of the impending disaster, the more the sense of tragedy of the whole play is highlighted. In the end, the delayed death of Desdemona pushed the audience's emotions to the peak. When Othello asked her to wait for him in her bedroom at night, all the spectators knew that she was going to die tonight, and this expected death made us anxious and eager to wait for the whole second half. Shakespeare's original "Song of the Willow" was played by Verdi, asking Desdemona to sing three sighs, the song was sung by her mother's abandoned maid, singing the woman's lament after the lover saw her and left her, and Desdemona also thought that Othello's inexplicable anger was because she no longer loved her. This delicate play-within-a-play, suggesting the similar fate of an affectionate woman, creates a stronger sadness, especially when she sings in a gossamer-like voice, and the audience can't bear it, and it is further anxious, because Othello's abnormality is because of love, not unlove. She had a premonition that she would die for love, and the only crime she could come up with was the obsession with her legitimate husband.
Next, Desdemona prayed to the Virgin Mary alone, and the tune gradually became peaceful and tranquil, which was the tranquility before the storm and allowed the audience to mentally withstand her death. The pull and tear of Othello's murder of his wife was also prolonged by the duet of accusation and self-defense, and the pain of her inability to prove her innocence made the audience feel empathy. Verdi's setting of asking Othello to suffocate his wife with a pillow has a stronger sexual meaning than the stranglehold in the original book. The intense passion of love and the lust that leads to murder and arson may be homogeneous. Iago, an evil man who did not believe in love and purity, had long seen Othello's weakness that he was "unwise and too affectionate in love" and could be incited into fatal jealousy and hatred and become stupid and confused. Throughout the opera, Kaufman is fully engaged, playing the psychology of suspicion and jealousy in a fierce and moving way. The benefit of an actor being too handsome is proof that anyone can make the same mistake, regardless of appearance.
Why can't people trust the people around them who have sincere feelings? Contemporary audiences often hold a mentality of "hating iron and not steel" for Othello, and audiences who are familiar with the plot and have a God perspective often do not delve into the character and situation of the characters, and it is difficult to perceive their blindness and stupidity in similar situations. In Bichna's play Wojcek, which herzog almost copied into a movie, Vojcek, a poor soldier with mental troubles, is betrayed by his wife, and his fate is the same as Othello's, killing his wife, and then dying, even before killing his wife, he wants to "kiss again". He was a lamb that had eaten peas for three months under the control of a doctor, and did not dare to beat or beat his wife's lover, but wanted to "stab the sheep-eating she-wolf to death." ”
After watching these two stories at the same time, the fate of the four protagonists touched me. Vojcek was ridiculed by the captain he served every day, Othello was deliberately provoked by Iaeagu's deliberate use of graphic descriptions such as "your wife stripped naked and slept with him", and the sense of honor that husbands should have absolute possession of their wives has never changed for hundreds of years, and they are afraid that the green hat will damage their dignity and self-confidence. But even without talking about honor and social vision, the basic human nature of love exclusivity still creates barriers and stings in people's hearts, and men are especially hostile to the flesh of their lovers being touched by others. Wojcek's wife, who was a devout Christian with Desdemona, knew very well that she was sinning and had mercy on her husband, but could not resist the power of lust. In the face of true human nature, it is difficult to talk about physical freedom and spiritual freedom.
Shakespeare, Verdi, Bischner, and Herzog tell the story of the insoluble tragedy of mankind, and Iaeagu, who has an insight into human nature, can always make waves, and we can only try to identify the person with the honey belly sword. Please do not easily say that a person is smart, when he falls in love, the mind first surrenders, do not easily say that a person is happy, who knows tomorrow his life will not be ruined by tragedy. Wojcek said: "Everyone is an abyss, and when people look down, they feel dizzy. ”