Otello in Nancy: Véliz's Desdemona Saves a Split-Verdi Evening

Soprano Yaritza Véliz's Desdemona was the sole unqualified triumph of the Opéra National de Nancy-Lorraine's new "Otello," seen in late September at the Nancy-Lorraine Opera House, while the production's male leads and orchestra delivered an evening the critic found stiff and uneven.

The production, first seen in Strasbourg last year, retains its stiffness, our reviewer notes. "Its stiffness and lack of sparkle remain fresh in my memories," the critic wrote of the revival. A renewed focus on acting — notably in Act two, Scene three, when Iago and Otello finally rise from their chairs — brought the staging to life. But seeing it a second time, the review argues, draws attention to its lack of polish.

What went wrong on stage?

Several concrete details stood out, and not favorably:

• Iago's white costume did not fit him properly.
• Desdemona's murder took place in a banquet hall rather than the bedroom.
• The polished floor — evoking the damp harbor ground during the opening storm and later the floor of the Doge's Palace — seemed out of place during the celebration on the ramparts.
• The striking play of shadows during the Iago-Roderigo scene felt lost.

The review also objects to the production's emphasis on femicide — announcing the annual number of victims killed by their assailants before the show and inserting a quotation from Shakespeare's "Otello" in the middle of the third Act, which, the critic writes, disrupts the narrative flow.

How did the singing divide?

The opera fell into two unequal halves: from the overture to the arrival of the emissaries in Act three, and from that arrival to the end. The first, predominantly male part concentrated the flaws.

Tenor Samuel Sakker's Otello had a muffled voice that kept him at a distance from the audience — clearly audible in "Ferito!...pel cielo." Baritone Daniel Scofield's Iago was "very academic, almost professorial," particularly in the monologue "Vanne; la tua meta già vedo," and, the reviewer writes, "failed to send shivers down the spine." Their duet suffered from confusion and a lack of harmony between the voices.

Relief came from the supporting cast: tenor Joel Prieto's Cassio and tenor Grégoire Mour's Roderigo, with his clear, bright tone.

The orchestra, though well conducted, merely accompanied — "the easy way out for a work of this scale," according to the review. The critic argues it should have been a character in its own right, as in "La Traviata." Instead, its academic approach "almost extinguished the work's fire," peaking in a segmented, silence-broken "Vanne; la tua meta già vedo" stripped of all its venom.

Why does Desdemona carry the evening?

Véliz cut through the dullness of the male voices with a clear timbre, delivering what her colleagues lacked: nuances, vocal range, and colors, especially in the predominantly feminine second part. The Song of the Willow gathered everything she had portrayed into "a truly virtuosic conclusion." Her fading singing — as if struggling to accept her inevitable end — "left the audience on the verge of tears."

She even pulled the orchestra out of its stodgy, school-like rut during the final acts. For audiences weighing a trip to Nancy, the review suggests the evening belongs to her alone.