Outstanding performance for pavarotti
This was a stretch for the Pav but he pulled it off. As he ages his voice is ready for the darker Verdi Otello that once belonged to Domingo. The chorus was also fabulous. No one conducts opera better than Solti. This is a collectors item!

On the whole, a good recording!
It may not be one of his greatest roles, but if you can manage to get the image of the Fat, Bearded, Italian Opera singer out of your head, Pavarotti sings a very believable Otello. Desdemona was one of Te Kanawa's signature roles, and this recording demonstrates why. She has a very vulnerable, pure, innocent, not to mention incredibly rich voice...absolutely perfect for this role. Leo Nucci portrays Iago for what he is: A corrupt and blackhearted man. Nucci has a very rich, creamy, dark-chocolate sound. I wasn't expecting to find Anthony Rolfe-Johnson in a Verdi recording...He usually doesn't venture past the 18th century...but he does a wonderful job, and that's all that matters. The chorus is lovely too...just listen to track 14 on disc 1 when they are showering Desdemona with flowers and affection...some of the loveliest operatic chorus music is in that scene. So don't hesitate to buy this recording.

Soft-focus cover + soft-focus recording
I guess I have pretty high standards when it comes to "Otello", which is one of the most searingly direct and emotionally complex scores of the 19th century, which led me to emerge from this recording feeling mushily disappointed. Other reviewers have given interesting appraisals of the singers here (Pavarotti's indifferently applied, goofy pathos; Te Kanawa's tonal beauty a bit past its prime), so I'll concentrate on the conducting. Solti emphasizes "Otello"'s sonic beauty, but this is not an especially beautiful opera by conventions of the time (which in composers as disparate as Massenet and Wagner was certainly an age of beautiful operatic sounds); Verdi uses every resource in his palette for delineation of character and emotional impact. Solti and his singers, in lingering over every piquant cadence and framing every high note with gooey emphasis, stall the breathless speed of the drama which can make it so moving - he betrays the central idea that life and grace can slip away so easily, that inchoate inner forces can take control suddenly and wrench us away from happiness. Instead, we are treated to conventional, and tired, emotional grandstanding that diminishes Verdi's tremendous dramaturgical achievement. It is no accident that Solti, even though he grabs a big photo-op on the back of the box, is content with a recording balance that favors the sobby singing. The orchestral playing, while skilled and occasionally lustily effective, takes on none of the interpretive role Verdi clearly desires.

Ok, I should admit that maybe my view of Solti's recordings is conditioned by dislike of his personality and his aversion to conducting new music, which I find extremely un-classy in a conductor so associated with starry music-making. But I think there's more to my objections than just disagreement in taste; the soupy ritards and indifferent ensemble harm the dramatic structure of the opera.

Take a randomly chosen scene: Jago is goading Cassio to talk about his crush on a girl (whom Otello will wrongly interpret as being his wife Desdomona). The music is searingly effective in context: a bright major key, running pizzicati and tidy classical phrases. But Solti ignores this devastating triviality, and just treats the scene like more pretty music - there is no violence, no disjunction, no sense of despair in his reading. This, in my mind, is a fatal flaw.

Solti's best Verdi
I'm not crazy about Solti's Verdi recordings. Although they are very highly praised, and always well done, I don't usually respond with sympathy to his emphasis on on rhythmic punctuation at the expense of the flowing lyrical melodies that Giulini brings out so well. This recording is something really quite different though. Pavarotti is a wonderful Otello, and in spite of what many reviewers have said, not inexperienced in the role (he had made a film version years ago). He is a first rate tenor and always has been, even if he doesn't sound like Domingo. I think he is far superior to the performance Domingo gives with Solti on a DVD released by Kultur.

Solti gave several 'concert' performances of Operas towards the end of his career, and I believe they are in many ways preferable to the studio--they gain the qualities of a live performance with a constant pace, without the interuptions of takes. The performers have the ability to shape an entire performance, but don't have to worry about the distracting stage sounds and potential dead spots on stage. Also they can focus on singing instead of acting. I think the quality of sound is superb (I can't imagine what another reviewer was thinking) and the setup guarantees balance from the performers. I also am frustrated at criticisms of performers like Nucci: It's the difference between people who are interested in drama and those that think everything should just be pretty. He's a very dramatic Iago. I'm actually not crazy about Te Kanawa--she's a good singer, I just don't think she is quite the singer everyone makes her out to be--certainly not on the same level as Pavarotti and Domingo. She does a decent job in the role, although she is not very good on the DVD.

I like this recording almost entirely because of Pavarotti. His voice is just so wonderful to listen to, and while he might not be the Otello for the theatre, he certainly makes for an excellent recording.

Very insightful conducting
I learnt a lot about Otello from this recording. In fact, I rate it higher than the Chung recording. While Chung goes very fast in the sections, in the slow sections, he is actually slower than Solti. So Chung's conducting is more 'variable' - the range of speeds wider. You may think that Chung's is faster (because his fast sections are fast) but Chung actually clocks in slower overall than Solti. Solti's conducting, on the other hand, is more constant in tempo. Solti's tempo doesn't change a whole lot so the whole opera sort of flows from one section to another. So while you feel the tension actually slackens in the slower sections in the Chung set, you don't find it to be the case with Solti. That's why I rate Solti higher - because you listen to the opera and your interest is there all the time - you don't find the tension slackening. I don't find Pavarotti inferior to Domingo on recording. There's not much to choose between the 2 Desdemonas. The Chicago Symphony Chorus is better recorded than the Paris chorus. I like them better.