Opera on WRTI

Saturdays, 1 to 5 pm

Each week, WRTI brings you great performances from some of the finest opera companies in the world.  In addition to the full season of radio broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera, you'll hear broadcasts from the Academy of Vocal Arts, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and more...

Saturday, September 4
San Francisco Opera
Giuseppe Verdi: OTELLO
Nicola Luisotti, conductor
1 to 4 pm

The San Francisco Opera returns to WRTI! Tune in on Saturday mornings through October to hear operatic favorites, recorded live from the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Music Director and Principal Conductor Nicola Luisotti leads the second-largest opera company in North America.

This week, in Verdi's masterful adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, a great warrior discovers the one weapon against which he has no defense--his own jealousy. Johan Botha, the South African tenor praised by The New York Times for his "effortless power and clarion tone," makes his San Francisco Opera debut in the title role. Bulgarian soprano Zvetelina Vassileva brings tenderness and vocal brilliance to the role of Desdemona, the faithful wife who finds that facts are no match for manufactured suspicion. Music Director Nicola Luisotti, praised by London's Financial Times for conveying Verdi's "sweep, lyricism, and subtle detail," conducts.

More Information:

• Synopsis, Program Notes, Photo Gallery, Pre-Opera Talks, Audio and Video

Cast:

• Otello: Johan Botha
• Desdemona: Zvetelina Vassileva
• Iago: Marco Vratogna
• Cassio: Beau Gibson
• Emilia: Renee Tatum
• Lodovico: Eric Halfvarson
• Roderigo: Daniel Montenegro
• Montano: Julien Robbins
• Herald: Austin Kness