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 resounding success. The audience's enthusiasm for Verdi was shown by the 20 curtain calls that he took at the end of the opera. Further stagings of "Otello" soon followed at leading theatres throughout Europe and America. The opera was first seen in the US at the Academy of Music in New York on 16 April 1888 and in the UK on 5 July 1889 in London. When it was given in Paris on 12 October 1894, "Verdi composed a short ballet (which) forms part of the ceremony of welcome for the Venetian ambassadors in the act 3 finale." The first