Opera

Otello, Hamlet, War and Peace

Three nights at the opera in Munich

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 04 July 2023

Opera

Otello, Hamlet, War and Peace

Three nights at the opera in Munich

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 04 July 2023

Exterior of the National Theatre, Munich, 2017 (image from Wikimedia Commons).

Many would regard Verdi’s late masterpiece, Otello, as the most successful operatic adaptation of Shakespeare. Some have also even opined that it is better than the play. There is no doubting that it is a remarkable work and a towering landmark in nineteenth-century opera. It was a remarkable alignment of fate for this reviewer to able to see the Verdi work a day before a third viewing of perhaps the most successful Shakespeare adaptation of the twenty-first century, Brett Dean’s Hamlet. Directed by Neil Armfield, this opera has enjoyed outstanding success after its première at Glyndebourne in 2017. The following year, it was staged at the Adelaide Festival, followed by a new production by Matthew Jocelyn, the librettist of the opera, for the Cologne opera in 2019. Then in 2022 came the ultimate recognition: Armfield’s staging at the New York Metropolitan Opera, broadcast live in HD. It doesn’t get much bigger than that. Now this production has reached the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. To see two operas based on two of the greatest flowerings of Western art – Hamlet and War and Peace – and a third reckoned by most as the finest example of Shakespearean adaptation, was joy indeed.

Michael Halliwell

Michael Halliwell studied literature and music at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at the London Opera Centre, and with Tito Gobbi in Florence. He has sung in Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia and was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the Nürnberg Municipal Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera singing over fifty major operatic roles, including several world premiere productions. He has served as Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera, Pro-Dean and Head of School, and Associate Dean (Research) at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is President of the International Association for Word and Music Studies. His publications include the monographs, Opera and the Novel (Rodopi: 2005); and National Identity on Contemporary Australian Opera: myths reconsidered (Routledge, 2018), as well as many chapters and articles. He still performs regularly and recent CDs include When the Empire Calls (ABC Classics, 2005); O for a Muse of Fire: Australian Shakespeare Settings (Vox Australis, 2013); Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles (Toccata Classics, 2014); That Bloody Game; Australian WWI Songs (Wirripang, 2015).