Can you ever feel truly accepted when still seen as a foreigner in the eyes of others? In Shakespeare’s play as in Verdi’s opera, it’s an impossible mission: prejudice is enough to make even a hero stumble. The higher Othello climbs, the more others see him as a threat. And the fall will be dizzying. The ‘Moor of Venice’ seems to have it all: military honours and Desdemona’s heart. Bolstered by his successes, he arrives in Cyprus as the City of Doges’ powerful envoy. But the African general’s ascent fuels Iago’s racist disdain. Frustrated by his junior position, the lieutenant takes his revenge on Othello by targeting his Achilles’ heel: his undying love for his wife. When Iago makes him doubt Desdemona’s faithfulness, it sets off a cynical chain of events. Slowly but surely, the admired Othello becomes the prisoner of his uncontrollable jealousy.

Otello, along with Aïda and Falstaff, is the paragon of Italian opera. Here Verdi employs true musical theatre: behind the lyrics, the orchestra expresses the inner torments and contradictory forces that consume the protagonists. The music exposes the victory of human weakness — the desire to possess, the fear of losing, and the need to subjugate others.

For the past two decades, Hungarian stage director Árpád Schilling has explored through his productions the social upheavals of our time, with a particular focus on radicalisation trends in Europe. At the Opéra de Lille he exposes the contemporary tensions in repertoire landmarks and explores the existential threat posed by violent power structures and social exclusion. He stages Otello as a tragedy of love destroyed by discrimination. The stigmatising gaze trained on a man seen as an outsider is so violent that the man eventually becomes the monster the community has projected onto him.

With the support of Crédit Agricole Nord de France, Grand patron, and CIC Nord Ouest, main patron of the season.


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