Elijah Moshinsky's masterly production first seen in 1987 provides the frame for Verdi's 1887 tragic operatic battle between good and evil.

Otello was the immediate predecessor to Verdi's last opera Falstaff and reflects Verdi's great affinity for Shakespeare in all his dramatic variety. Few composers have ventured to make a musical version of so highly regarded a literary classic with such effortless assurance and interpretative command.

Verdi finds a musical language to express both the heroism and inner horror of the Venetian general Otello, tricked into believing in the faithlessness of his pure wife Desdemona.