Otello (usually singing it in German). The Russian heroic tenor Ivan Yershov was a renowned pre-World War I Otello in his native country. His compatriot Arnold Azrikan achieved his greatest recognition as a dramatic tenor in Otello. For this performance he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946. Enrico Caruso was studying "Otello" when he died unexpectedly in 1921, thus thwarting the New York Metropolitan Opera company's plans to stage the opera as a new vehicle for its star tenor. Currently, Plácido Domingo has appeared in more video productions of the opera than any other tenor. Also, he has recorded the
Otello Otello Otello () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play "Othello". It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. With the composer's reluctance to write anything new after the success of "Aida" in 1871 and his retreat into retirement, it took his Milan publisher Giulio Ricordi the next ten years, first to persuade him to write anything, then to encourage the revision of Verdi's 1857 "Simon Boccanegra" by introducing Boito as librettist, and finally to begin