Verdi: Otello - Salzburg Easter Festival (2016) [Blu-ray]

A superb new Otello from the Salzburg Easter Festival: ‘Cura is a commanding Otello with his richly coloured tenor and both fragile delicacy and fiery ardour’ (Südwestpresse). ‘Röschmann as Desdemona guarantees effortless perfection’ (Neue Musikzeitung). ‘Álvarez as Iago would be hard to surpass’ (Abendzeitung). This Salzburg production – featuring ‘a cast worthy of any festival’ (Südwestpresse) – is conducted by Christian Thielemann, who displays a command of Verdian tragedy to match his celebrated sovereignty in Wagner. He and his great Dresden Staatskapelle, a consummate opera ensemble, ‘achieve wonders’ (Die Presse), ‘generating Italian ‘Musikdrama’ with their incandescence and precise nuances’ (Abendzeitung). In his fascinating staging, director Vincent Broussard integrates video with set and lighting design to create an idealised visual context for what he calls Otello’s ‘conflict of ancient and modern, of 2D and 3D’.