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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Otello, Linda B. Fairtile
Otello, Linda B. Fairtile
University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications
Verdi's penultimate opera represents his first new work for the stage after a nearly sixteen-year hiatus. As battles raged over the future of Italian opera-whether it should remain rooted in song or follow foreign trends that assign a greater role to the orchestra-Giulio Ricordi and Boito patiently lured Verdi back into the fray. Boito's libretto, an ingenious and at times eccentric adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, inspired the composer to a highly personal fusion of tradition and innovation. At its premiere Otello was widely hailed as a masterpiece, an emphatic and fundamentally Italian answer to the debate over music and …
Verdi's First "Willow Song": New Sketches And Drafts For Otello, Linda B. Fairtile
Verdi's First "Willow Song": New Sketches And Drafts For Otello, Linda B. Fairtile
University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications
The genesis of Verdi's Otello is a familiar episode in the history of Italian opera. The semiretired composer's reluctance to reenter the operatic fray, his gradual interest in Arrigo Boito's draft libretto, and the astonishing speed with which he composed the music have been the subject of both musicological and biographical study. Letters between librettist and composer detail the textual modifications that Boito made to accommodate Verdi's needs. Up until now, however, we have had few corresponding musical documents readily available to illustrate how Verdi grappled with the challenges of Boito's libretto. Beginning with his draft text, dispatched to Verdi …