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Othello
Othello. First performed in America in 1751 by Robert Upton, this tragedy was, along with Hamlet and Richard III, one of the three Shakespearean plays most favored by 19th‐century classic American tragedians. One special reason for the favor seems to have been that they could alternate in the roles of Iago and Othello. For many early 19th‐century Americans, Edmund Kean's dignified but volatile Moor served as an exemplar, challenged only by the more ferocious, stentorian Moor of Edwin Forrest. Both Junius Brutus Booth and Edwin Booth met marked success in either role, with the younger actor's interpretations marked by subtleties apparently foreign to his father. Among the other notable interpreters of one or both parts were Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, G. F. Cooke (whose Iago won praise for not being too theatrically villainous), A. A. Addams, James Fennell, E. L. Davenport, Lawrence Barrett, James Murdoch, John McCullough, and Robert Mantell. Most, but not all of these actors, performed the Moor in black or swarthy make‐up. A notable Moor was Tommaso Salvini, who emphasized the figure's Mediterranean emotionalism. In modern times Walter Huston suffered a major failure when he essayed the Moor, but Alfred Drake, better known for starring in musicals, won high praise when he offered an insinuating but carefully controlled Iago at the American Shakespearean Festival. However, the most memorable modern revivals have both offered African Americans as the Moor. In 1943 Paul Robeson gave a richly humane performance to the Iago of José Ferrer and the notable Desdemona of Uta Hagen, while a 1982 production offered James Earl Jones as Othello and Christopher Plummer as Iago. The American who has played Othello the most is Earle Hyman, with hundreds of performances around the world.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Othello." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Othello." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Othello.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Othello." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Othello.html |
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Othello
Othello the ‘Moor of Venice’, central character of Shakespeare's tragedy (1602–4), shown as a great man and successful soldier who is driven by the machinations of Iago to believe that his young wife Desdemona has been unfaithful to him; he kills her, and attempts to have her supposed lover murdered. Othello may be alluded to as a type of morbid jealousy.
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Cite this article
ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Othello." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Othello." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Othello.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Othello." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Othello.html |
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Othello
Othello. Ov. for orch. Op.93, by Dvořák, comp. 1891–2 as 3rd of cycle of 3 ovs. called Nature, Life, and Love, the others being Amid Nature and Carneval. See also Otello.
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Cite this article
MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Othello." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Othello." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-Othello.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Othello." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-Othello.html |
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