Otello (1986 film) Otello (1986 film) Otello is a 1986 film based on the Giuseppe Verdi opera of the same name, which was itself based on the Shakespearean play "Othello". The film was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starred Plácido Domingo in the title role, Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona and Justino Díaz as Iago. For the movie's soundtrack, Lorin Maazel conducted the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala. The film premiered in West Germany on August 28, 1986 and received a U.S. theatrical release on September 12, 1986. It was nominated for a Bafta Award and a Golden Globe for Best
Otello it "Otello". Emanuele Muzio (Verdi's long-time assistant) tells Ricordi in March that the love duet in act 1 was finished and performed. In May, Verdi "hit upon the precise form of one of the most famous entrances in all opera" – Otello's "Esultate"—in act 1. Boito modified his verses accordingly. Other minor changes and proposed revisions were wrapped up into September so that Verdi could write to Ricordi on 9 September: "Tomorrow I shall send to Casa Ricordi, completely finished, all the first act and all scene "vi" of the third; and thus with the fourth, already sent, perhaps three-fifths