Directed by: Keith Warner

Release Date: 28/06/2017

Genre: Opera

Run Time: 165

Starring: Jonas Kaufmann, Maria Agresta, Ludovic Tézier

Synopsis: See one of the most hotly anticipated productions of The Royal Opera’s 2017 Season at your local cinema as Jonas Kaufmann makes his role debut in Verdi’s tragic masterpiece Otello. This brand new production is live in cinemas on Wednesday 28 June at 7.15pm offering a chance to see the world’s most famous tenor take to the stage in this iconic role. The vision of Olivier Award winning Director Keith Warner, the production focuses on the opposition of light and dark, good and evil. Exploring the mental collapse of Otello - urged on by Iago, French baritone Ludovic Tézier - we see Otello believe that Desdemona, the Italian soprano Maria Agresta, has betrayed him. A psychological drama, the characters explore themes of trust and insecurity fuelled by Iago’s lies – enemies become allies and friends become foes is this dark drama. Musically Verdi draws upon Shakespeare’s harrowing text to create a score that carries heart-thumping intensity and the results are thrilling: from the violent storm that opens the opera to Iago’s blood-chilling Credo and Otello’s increasingly desperate duets with Desdemona. Stylistically simple with sliding walls and shifting scenes by Boris Kudlička, the cast exude Elizabethan glamour in their contemporary costumes by Kaspar Glaner.