OTELLO:Verdi
Gergiev; Domingo, Vaness, Leiferkus, Croft
Original Air Date: 04/02/1994
SID.20010317
Vaness’ Desdemona is professional and musical without being especially memorable. In the current controversy [this was over Gergiev’s close support of Putin and around the time of the Onegin opening night, where will Ukraine be in January 2015 when Gergiev is back at the house?] Gergiev was hardly deserving of an Otello production, but he was Joe Volpe’s counterbalance to Levine. His participation here is not a plus. Domingo’s Otello is a known quantity and he’s heard better elsewhere. though surprisingly streaming only features one audio performance and 2 videos; his actual broadcast total from the Met is 2 videos and 4 audios.