In addition to its appearance in thetheatre, the character ofOthello from the tragic play byWilliam Shakespeare has appeared in many examples in art and culture since being authored by Shakespeare in the early 16th century.
The literary character of Othello and the plot of the play by Shakespeare has been a recurrent theme in painting for several centuries. Selected examples includeThe Plot depicting Othello and Iago, which was painted in oil bySolomon Alexander Hart in 1855. He also painted a watercolour version, held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.Othello was a series of 60 paintings executed in 1985 byNabil Kanso. It was published in 1996 by NEV Editions.
In 2018, the African American conceptual artistFred Wilson created the workI saw Othello's visage in his mind inMurano glass and wood, inspired by a line ofDesdemona's in Act One of the tragedy.[1]
Otello, a four-act opera with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsa and music byGioachino Rossini was first performed at theTeatro del Fondo,Naples, on 4 December 1816. In contrast to Shakespeare's version, di Salsa provided an alternative happy ending to the work, a common practice with drama and opera at one time.
Giuseppe Verdi andArrigo Boito wroteOtello. Verdi and his librettist dispensed with the first act of the play.Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film version ofVerdi's opera starringPlácido Domingo as Othello was nominated for theBAFTA for foreign language film.[citation needed] However, it did not win the award. According to theKennedy Center's biographical note on Domingo, Laurence Olivier saw Domingo inOtello and, in a mock-furious voice, told Franco Zeffirelli: "You realise that Domingo plays Othello as well as I do, and he has that voice!"[2]
Mexican choreographerJosé Limón created a 20-minute, four character ballet calledThe Moor's Pavane to the music ofHenry Purcell in 1949. It is a standard in dance companies around the world and notable interpreters of the Moor includeRudolf Nureyev.
The balletOthello was choreographed byJohn Neumeier to music by Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Naná Vasconcelos et al. and was premiered by the Hamburg Ballet in Hamburg on 27 January 1985, withGamal Gouda as Othello,Gigi Hyatt as Desdemona, andMax Midinet as Iago. The work remains in the repertoire of theHamburg Ballet, seeing its 100th performance in 2008.
AnotherOthello ballet, by Iranian Armenian composerLoris Tjeknavorian, was commissioned by theNorthern Ballet company and was shown in London in 1985. The musical score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, was recorded by EMI.
The American actorJames Earl Jones performs Othello's Act I, scene III monologue fromShakespeareOthello at theWhite House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on 12 May 2009.
Between 1948 and 1952,Orson Welles directedThe Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952), produced as a black-and-whitefilm noir.[4] Rather than focusing on racial disparity, the film plays on a difference between Desdemona and Othello in age, size and personal attractiveness. The film noir colouring of the picture minimised any commentary on Othello's blackness, to the point that the criticF. R. Leavis wrote that the film made no reference to Othello's colour.[4]
Thefirst major screen production casting a black actor as Othello would not come until 1995 withLaurence Fishburne oppositeKenneth Branagh's Iago. It was made during theO. J. Simpson trial and commentators such as Cartmell draw parallels between the twowhodunit murder stories, and wondered if the film's release was not a little to do with the publicity surrounding Simpson's drama.[4] A modernised, loose retelling,O, completed in 1999 and released in 2001, featured African-American actorMekhi Phifer in the lead role, which was renamed from "Othello" to "Odin James" or "O. J.", with the story set in an American high school and revolving around sports rather than warfare.
Malayalam filmKaliyattam is an adapted version ofOthello against the backdrop of theHinduTheyyam performance. In 1998,Suresh Gopi received the National Film Award for Best Actor, andJayaraj the award for Best Director for their work on the film.
1947 Othello forms the backdrop for the 1947film noirA Double Life in which actor Anthony Johns (Ronald Colman) becomes so immersed in the production, that he takes on the Moor's murderous jealousy in his real life.
2002Eloise a modern update, set in Sydney, Australia.
2004Stage Beauty, a romantic period drama, set in the 17th century, on the theme of male and female actors playing women's roles – with the role of Desdemona as the example.
2008Othello, The Tragedy of The Moor. A two-hour television adaptation starringCarlo Rota in the title role. DirectorZaib Shaikh maintains the theatrical feel of the play, while shooting in a studio-controlled environment. Also starringMatthew Deslippe as Iago,Christine Horne as Desdemona,Graham Abbey as Cassio. The adaptation was co-written by Zaib Shaikh andMatthew Edison.[13]
2011– An Indian daily soap named "Gunahon ka Devta" aired onImagine TV was loosely based on Shakespeare's famed Othello
2022Tulsa King starringSylvester Stalone visually features the book and his character is said to have read it during his incarceration.[14]
In 1891-2, the Bohemian/Czech composerAntonin Dvořák composed the overture 'Othello', Op 93 (cfOthello)
In 1914, the Ukrainian-bornSergei Bortkiewicz composed his orchestral Symphonic poem after 'Othello', Op 19.
In 1963, the Soviet composerVladimir Yurovsky finished his tragic Symphonic poem for a narrator, choir and orchestra after 'Othello', Op. 58.
In 1987, Australian singerPaul Kelly wrote a song called "Desdemona", a reference to Othello's love interest.
Chicago-based hip-hop groupQ Brothers created a modern adaptation with Othello being a record producer called "Othello: The Remix."
In 2014 R&B artistSZA referenced characters from Othello and Shakespeare himself on her song "Childs Play": "Come Desdemona / Othello and tragedies / Shakespearean sorrows".[15]
In 2016 R&B artistFrank Ocean referenced Othello in his song Nikes "Must be on that white like Othello".[16]
Othello, an adaptation byOscar Zárate, Oval Projects Ltd (1985). It was reprinted in 2005 by Can of Worms Press and includes the complete text of the play.
In January 2009, amanga adaptation was published in the United Kingdom, with art by Ryuta Osada. It is part of the Manga Shakespeare series byRichard Appignanesi, and is set in Venice in carnival season.[19]
Christopher Moore combinesOthello andThe Merchant of Venice in his 2014 comic novelThe Serpent of Venice, in which he makes Portia (fromThe Merchant of Venice) and Desdemona (fromOthello) sisters. All of the characters come from those two plays with the exception of Pocket, the Fool, who comes from Moore's earlier novel based onKing Lear.
The supporting characterIago inDisney franchiseAladdin is named after the antagonist of the play, Iago.I, Iago byNicole Galland depicts Iago, as the protagonist and explores his potential motivations and history.
The plot of thePortuguese language novelDom Casmurro by theBrazilian authorMachado de Assis, a translator ofOthello into Portuguese, is based upon the play. It is generally considered one of the great novels of Brazilian literature.
In 2017, Hogarth (a division of Penguin Random House company) published, as part of the Shakespeare Project, a novel by Tracy Chevalier,New Boy. The characters fromOthello are transposed in a Washington D.C. school where eleven-year-old boys and girls re-enact the shakespearian tragedy but in the 1970s.
Mustafa Said, the Sudanese central figure ofTayeb Salih's Arabic language novelSeason of Migration to the North (1966) refers to himself as Othello and kills his English wife with Jean Morris with a knife out of jealousy.
Othello Cake, Danish cake with aMacaron base, cream and chocolate glaze. The cake is named after the play, with the white cream and dark chocolate signifying the relationship between Desdemona and Othello.[20]
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Othello public domain audiobook atLibriVox
