LA Opera Gives Voice to Shakespeare With Verdi's Otello

A deeply admired military general, and loyal husband, Otello spirals out of control when his scheming ensign, Iago, hints that Otello's wife, Desdemona, is having an affair.

In the 1880s, Giuseppe Verdi transformed William Shakespeare's potent drama Othello — a story of love, jealousy, racial prejudice, and manipulation— into a gripping opera brimming with unbridled emotion and murder. LA Opera has offered its take on this complex tragedy four times in the past — the last coming 15 years ago —and now it will present a revival of its 2008 production. Music director James Conlon will serve as conductor, while artist in Residence Russell Thomas assumes the formidable title role. Rachel Wilis-Sørensen stars as the doomed Desdemona and Igor Golovatenko plays the ruthless lago, who weaponizes Otello's jealousy against him with deadly consequences.

GRoW is delighted to support this production, which is returning to LA Opera's stage for the first time in 15 years.