Othello, the Moor of Venice is a
tragedy by
William
Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately
1603, and based on the
Italian
short story "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain") by
Cinthio, a disciple of
Boccaccio, first published in 1565.
The work revolves
around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish
general in the Venetian
army; his
wife Desdemona; his lieutenant, Cassio;
and his trusted ensign Iago. Because of its varied themes —
racism,
love,
jealousy, and
betrayal —
Othello remains relevant to the present day and is often
performed in professional and community theatres alike. The play
has also been the basis for numerous operatic, film, and literary
adaptations.
Characters
- Othello, the
Moor:a dark-skinned, African prince who lives
in a European, colour-prejudiced society, where he holds the rank
of general in the Venetian military. As a professional soldier he
has had little experience with women, but his tales of heroics
manage to entice Desdemona to become his
wife.
- Desdemona,
Othello's wife and daughter of Brabantio
- Iago, Othello's ensign and
Emilia's husband, a villain. He hides his real nature under the
veil of 'honesty'.
- Emilia, Iago's
wife and Desdemona's maidservant
- Cassio,
Othello's lieutenant.
- Brabantio, a Venetian
senator, Gratiano's brother, and Desdemona's father
- Bianca,
Cassio's lover
- Roderigo, a dissolute
Venetian, in love with Desdemona
- Duke of Venice, or the "Doge"
- Gratiano, Brabantio's brother
- Lodovico, Brabantio's kinsman and Desdemona's
cousin
- Montano, Othello's Venetian predecessor in the
government of Cyprus
- Clown, a servant
- Officers, Gentlemen, Messenger, Musicians, Herald,
Sailor, Attendants, etc.
Plot
The play opens with Roderigo, a rich and dissolute gentleman,
complaining to Iago, a high-ranking soldier, that Iago has not told
him about the secret marriage between
Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator
named
Brabantio, and
Othello, a
Moorish general in the Venetian army. He is upset by
this development because he loves Desdemona and had previously
asked her father for her hand in marriage. Iago is upset with
Othello for promoting a younger man named
Michael Cassio above him, and tells Roderigo
that he plans to use Othello for his own advantage. Iago's argument
against Cassio is that he is a scholarly tactician with no real
battle experience from which he can draw strategy; in contrast,
Iago has practical battle skills. By emphasizing Roderigo's failed
bid for Desdemona, and his own dissatisfaction with serving under
Othello, Iago convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio, Desdemona's
father, and tell him about his daughter's
elopement. Next, Iago sneaks away to find Othello
and warns him that Brabantio is coming for him.
However, before Brabantio reaches Othello, news arrives in Venice
that the Turks are going to attack Cyprus; therefore Othello is
summoned to advise the senators. Brabantio arrives and accuses
Othello of seducing Desdemona by
witchcraft, but Othello defends himself
successfully before an assembly that includes the Duke of Venice,
Brabantio's kinsman Lodovico and Gratiano, and various senators,
explaining that Desdemona became enamored of him for the stories he
told of his early life.
By order
of the Duke, Othello leaves Venice
to command
the Venetian armies against invading Turks on the island of
Cyprus
, accompanied by his new wife, his new lieutenant
Cassio, his ensign Iago, and Emilia as Desdemona's
attendant.
The party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the
Turkish fleet. Othello orders a general celebration. Iago schemes
to use Cassio to ruin Othello and takes the opportunity of
Othello's absence at the celebration to persuade Roderigo to engage
Cassio in a fight. He achieves this by getting Cassio drunk on
wine. The brawl greatly alarms the citizenry, and Othello is forced
to quell the disturbance. Othello blames Cassio for the
disturbance, and strips him of his rank. Cassio is distraught, but
Iago persuades him to importune Desdemona to act as an intermediary
between himself and Othello, and persuade her husband to reinstate
him.

"Desdemona in bed asleep", from
Othello (Act V, scene 2), part of "A Collection of Prints, from
Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works
of Shakespeare, by the Artists of Great-Britain", published by John
and Josiah Boydell (1803)
Iago now persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and
Desdemona. As it happens, Cassio is courting a courtesan named
Bianca. Desdemona drops a handkerchief that was Othello's first
gift to her and which he has stated holds great significance to him
in the context of their relationship. Iago asks Emilia to steal it.
Emilia, unaware of what Iago plans to do with the handkerchief,
steals it. Iago plants it in Cassio's lodgings as evidence of
Cassio and Desdemona's affair. After he has planted the
handkerchief, Iago tells Othello to stand apart and watch Cassio's
reactions while Iago questions him about the handkerchief. Iago
goads Cassio on to talk about his affair with Bianca, without
mentioning her name; because no name is mentioned, Othello thinks
that Cassio is referring to Desdemona. Bianca, on discovering the
handkerchief, chastises Cassio, accusing him of giving her a
second-hand gift which he received from another lover. Othello sees
this, and Iago convinces him that Cassio received the handkerchief
from Desdemona. Enraged and hurt, Othello decides he is going to
kill his wife and Iago offers to kill Cassio. Othello proceeds to
make Desdemona's life a misery, hitting her in front of her family.
Desdemona laments her suffering, remembering the fate of her
mother's maid, who was forsaken by her lover.
Iago convinces Roderigo to kill Cassio instead, because Cassio has
just been appointed in Othello's place, whereas if Cassio lives to
take office, Othello and Desdemona will leave Cyprus, thwarting
Roderigo's plans to win Desdemona. Roderigo attacks Cassio in the
street after Cassio leaves Bianca's lodgings. They fight and both
are wounded. Passers-by arrive to help; Iago joins them, pretending
to help Cassio. Iago secretly stabs Roderigo to stop him from
confessing and accuses Bianca of conspiracy to kill Cassio.
In the night, Othello confronts Desdemona, and then kills her by
smothering her in bed, before Emilia
arrives. At Emilia's distress, Othello tries to explain himself,
justifying his actions by accusing Desdemona of adultery. Emilia
calls for help. The Governor arrives, with Iago and others, and
Emilia begins to explain the situation. When Othello mentions the
handkerchief as proof, Emilia realizes what Iago has done; she
exposes him, whereupon Iago kills her. Othello, realizing
Desdemona's innocence, attacks Iago but does not kill him, saying
that he would rather have Iago live the rest of his life in pain.
Lodovico, a Venetian nobleman, apprehends both Iago and Othello,
but Othello commits
suicide with a dagger
before they can take him into custody. At the end, it can be
assumed, Iago is taken off to be
tortured
and possibly
executed.
Source
Othello is an adaptation of the Italian writer
Cinthio's tale, "Un Capitano Moro"
from his
Gli Hecatommithi (1565), a collection of one
hundred tales in the style of
Boccacio's
Decameron. No English translation
of Cinthio was available in Shakespeare's lifetime, and verbal
echoes in
Othello are closer to the Italian original than
to Gabriel Chappuy's 1584
French
translation. Cinthio's tale may have been based on an actual
incident occurring in Venice about 1508. It also resembles an
incident described in the earlier tale of "
The Three Apples", one of the stories
narrated in the
One
Thousand and One Nights (
Arabian Nights).
Desdemona is the only named character in Cinthio's tale, with his
few other characters identified only as "the
Moor", "the squadron leader", "the ensign", and "the
ensign's wife". Cinthio drew a moral (which he placed in the mouth
of Desdemona) that European women are unwise to marry the
temperamental males of other nations.
Cinthio's
Moor is the model for Shakespeare's Othello, but some researchers
believe the poet also took inspiration from the several Moorish
delegations from Morocco
to Elizabethan England circa
1600.
While Shakespeare closely followed Cinthio's tale in composing
Othello, he departed from it in some details. Brabantio,
Roderigo, and several minor characters are not found in Cinthio,
for example, and Shakespeare's Emilia takes part in the
handkerchief mischief while her counterpart in Cinthio does not.
Unlike Shakespeare's Iago, Cinthio's ensign lusts after Desdemona
and is spurred to revenge when she rejects him. Shakespeare's
opening scenes are unique to his tragedy as is the tender scene
between Emilia and Desdemona as the lady prepares for bed.
Shakespeare's most striking departure from Cinthio is the manner of
his heroine's death. In Shakespeare, Othello suffocates Desdemona,
but in Cinthio, the Moor commissions his ensign to bludgeon his
wife to death with a sand-filled stocking. Cinthio describes each
gruesome blow, and, when the lady is dead, the Moor and his ensign
place her lifeless body upon her bed, smash her skull, and cause
the cracked ceiling above the bed to collapse upon her, giving the
impression its falling rafters caused her death.
In Cinthio, the two murderers escape detection. The Moor then
misses his wife greatly, and comes to loathe the sight of his
ensign. He demotes him, and refuses to have him in his company. The
ensign then seeks revenge by disclosing to the "the squadron
leader" (the tale's Cassio counterpart), the Moor's involvement in
Desdemona's death. The two depart Cyprus for Venice, and denounce
the Moor to the Venetian Seignory; the Moor is arrested, taken to
Venice, and tortured. He refuses to admit his guilt and is
condemned to exile. Desdemona's relatives eventually find and kill
him. The ensign, however, continues to escape detection in
Desdemona's death, but engages in other crimes while in Venice. He
is arrested and dies after being tortured. Cinthio's "ensign's
wife" survives her husband's death to tell her story.
Date and text
The
earliest mention of the play is found in a 1604
Revels Office account, which
records that on "Hallamas Day, being the first of Nouembar ... the
Kings Maiesties plaiers" performed "A Play in the Banketinghouse
att Whit
Hall
Called The Moor of Venis." The work is
attributed to "Shaxberd." The Revels account was first printed by
Peter Cunningham in 1842, and, while its authenticity was once
challenged, is now regarded as genuine (as authenticated by A. E.
Stamp in 1930). Based on its style, the play is usually dated 1603
or 1604, but arguments have been made for dates as early as 1601 or
1602.
The play was entered into the
Register of the
Stationers
Company on October 6, 1621, by
Thomas
Walkley, and was first published in
quarto format by him in 1622:
THE Tragoedy of Othello, The Moore of
Venice.
As it hath beene diuerse times acted at the
Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by his Maiesties
Seruants.
Written by VVilliam Shakespeare.
LONDON, Printed by
N.
O.
[Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, and
are to be sold at his shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans
Bursse, 1622.
One year later, the play was included among the plays in the
First Folio of Shakespeare's collected
plays. However, the version in the Folio is rather different in
length, and in wording: as the editors of the Folger edition
explain,
...the Folio play has about 160 lines that do not
appear in the Quarto.
Some of these cluster together in quite extensive
passages.
The Folio also lacks a scattering of about a dozen
lines or part-lines that are to be found in the
Quarto.
These two versions also differ from each other in their
readings of numerous words.
Scholars differ in their explanation of these differences, and no
consensus has emerged. One explanation is that the Quarto may have
been cut in the printing house to meet a fixed number of pages.
Another is that the Quarto is based on an early version of the
play, while the Folio represents Shakespeare's revised version.
Most modern editions are based on the longer Folio version, but
often incorporate Quarto readings of words when the Folio text
appears to be in error.
Quartos were also published in 1630, 1655, 1681, 1695, 1699 and
1705.
Themes and tropes
Othello's racial classification
There is no consensus over
Othello's
racial classification.
The character is normally performed as a
black person, although he was frequently
performed as an
Arab during the
nineteenth century. Othello is referred
to as a "
Moor", a term used during
the
English Renaissance to refer
to dark-skinned people in general.
Michael Neill, editor of the
Oxford
Shakespeare edition, notes that the earliest external
references to Othello's colour, (
Thomas
Rymer's 1693 critique of the play, and the 1709 engraving in
Nicholas Rowe's edition of
Shakespeare) assume him to be a black man, while the earliest known
North African interpretation was not until
Edmund Kean's production of 1814. Modern-day
readers and theatre directors normally lean towards the "black"
interpretation, while North African Othellos are rare.
E.A.J. Honigmann, the editor of the
Arden Shakespeare edition, concluded that
Othello's race is ambiguous. Various uses of the word 'black' (for
example, "Haply for I am black") are insufficient evidence,
Honigmann argues, since 'black' could simply mean 'swarthy' to
Elizabethans. Moreover, Iago twice uses the word 'Barbary' or
'Barbarian' to refer to Othello, seemingly referring to the
Barbary coast inhabited by the "tawny"
Moors. Roderigo calls Othello 'the thicklips', which seems to refer
to European conceptions of Sub-Saharan African physiognomy, but
Honigmann counters that, arguing that because these comments are
all insults, they need not be taken literally.
In addition, Honigmann questions whether the ambassador of the Arab
King of Barbary, who stayed with his retinue in London in 1600 for
several months and occasioned much discussion, might have inspired
Shakespeare's play, written only a few years afterwards.
Iago / Othello
Although eponymously titled, suggesting that the tragedy belongs
primarily to Othello, Iago plays an important role in the plot and
with that has more lines than the title character. In
Othello, it is Iago who manipulates all other characters
at will, controlling their movements and trapping them in an
intricate net of lies. He achieves this by getting close to all
characters and playing on their weaknesses while they refer to him
as "honest" Iago, thus furthering his control over the characters .
A. C.
Bradley — and more recently
Harold Bloom — have been major advocates of
this interpretation.
Other critics, most notably in the later twentieth century (after
F. R.
Leavis), have focused on Othello. Apart
from the common question of jealousy, some argue that his
honour is his undoing, while others address the hints
of instability in his person (in Act IV Scene I, for example, he
falls 'into a trance').
Critical analysis
There have been many differing views on the character of Othello
over the years. They span from describing Othello as a hero to
describing him as an egotistical fool. A.C Bradley calls Othello
the "most romantic of all of Shakespeare's heroes" and "the
greatest poet of them all". On the other hand, F.R. Leavis
describes Othello as "egotistical". There are those who also take a
less critical approach to the character of Othello such as
William Hazlitt saying that "the nature of
the Moor is noble... but his blood is of the most inflammable
kind".
Performance history
Othello possesses an unusually detailed performance
record.
The first certainly known performance
occurred on November 1, 1604, at Whitehall Palace
in London, being mentioned in a Revels account on
"Hallamas Day, being the first of Nouembar", 1604, when "the Kings
Maiesties plaiers" performed "A Play in the Banketinge house at
Whit Hall Called The Moor of Venis." The play is there
attributed to "Shaxberd".
Subsequent
performances took place on Monday, April 30, 1610 at the Globe Theatre
, and at Oxford in September 1610.
On
November 22, 1629, and on May 6, 1635, it played at the Blackfriars
Theatre
. Othello was also one of the twenty
plays performed by the
King's Men during the winter of
1612–13, in celebration of the wedding of Princess
Elizabeth and
Frederick V, Elector
Palatine.
At the
start of the Restoration era, on
October 11, 1660, Samuel Pepys saw the
play at the Cockpit
Theatre
. Nicholas Burt
played the lead, with
Charles Hart as Cassio;
Walter Clun won fame for his Iago. Soon
after, on December 8, 1660,
Thomas
Killigrew's new
King's Company
acted the play at their Vere Street theatre, with
Margaret Hughes as Desdemona — probably the
first time a professional actress appeared on a public stage in
England.
It may be one index of the play's power that
Othello was
one of the very few Shakespearean plays that was never adapted and
changed during the Restoration and the eighteenth century. Famous
nineteenth century Othellos included
Edmund
Kean,
Edwin Forrest,
Ira Aldridge, and
Tommaso Salvini, and outstanding Iagos were
Edwin Booth and
Henry Irving.
The play has maintained its popularity into the 21st century. The
most famous American production may be
Margaret Webster's 1943 staging starring
Paul Robeson as Othello and
Jose Ferrer as Iago.
This production was
the first ever in the United States of America
to feature a black actor playing Othello with an
otherwise all-white cast (there had been all-black productions of
the play before). It ran for 296 performances, almost twice as
long as any other Shakespearean play
ever produced on Broadway
. Although it was never filmed, it was the
first nearly complete performance of a Shakespeare play released on
records.
Robeson had first played the role in London
in 1931 opposite a cast that included Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona and Ralph Richardson as Roderigo, and would
return to it in 1959 at Stratford on Avon
.
The American actor
William Marshall
performed the title role in at least six productions. His Othello
was called by
Harold Hobson of the
London Sunday Times "the best Othello of our time," continuing:
"...nobler than Tearle,
more martial than Gielgud, more poetic
than Valk.
From his first entry, slender and magnificently tall,
framed in a high Byzantine arch, clad in white samite, mystic,
wonderful, a figure of Arabian romance and grace, to his last
plunging of the knife into his stomach, Mr Marshall rode without
faltering the play's enormous rhetoric, and at the end the house
rose to him."
Marshall also played Othello in a jazz musical version,
Catch
My Soul, with
Jerry Lee Lewis
as
Iago, in Los Angeles in 1968. His Othello
was captured on record in 1964 with
Jay
Robinson as Iago and on video in 1981 with
Ron Moody as Iago.
Another
famous production was the 1982 Broadway
staging with James Earl
Jones as Othello and Christopher
Plummer as Iago, who became the only actor to receive a
Tony Award nomination for a performance
in the play.
When
Laurence Olivier played his
legendary and wildly acclaimed performance of Othello at the
Royal
National Theatre
in 1964, he had developed a case of stage fright
that was so profound that when he was alone onstage, Frank Finlay (who was playing Iago) would have
to stand offstage where Olivier could see him to settle his
nerves. This performance was recorded complete on LP, and
filmed by popular demand in 1965 (according to a biography of
Olivier, tickets for the stage production were notoriously hard to
get). The film version still holds the record for the most
Oscar nominations for acting ever given to a
Shakespeare film - Olivier, Finlay,
Maggie
Smith (as Desdemona) and
Joyce
Redman (as Emilia, Iago's wife) were all nominated for
Academy Awards.
Olivier was among the
last white actors to be greatly acclaimed as Othello, although the
role continued to be played by such performers as Paul Scofield at the Royal
National Theatre
in 1980, Anthony
Hopkins in the BBC Shakespeare
television production on videotape. (1981), and
Michael Gambon in a stage production at
Scarborough directed by
Alan
Ayckbourn in 1990.
When
Patrick Stewart played Othello at
the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C.
, he portrayed the Moor as a white man with the
other characters played by black actors.
Actors have alternated the roles of Iago and Othello in productions
to stir audience interest since the nineteenth century.
Two of
the most notable examples of this role swap were William Charles Macready and
Samuel Phelps at Drury Lane
(1837) and Richard
Burton and John Neville at
the Old Vic
Theatre
(1955). When
Edwin
Booth's tour of England in 1880 was not well attended,
Henry Irving invited Booth to alternate the
roles of Othello and Iago with him in London. The stunt renewed
interest in Booth's tour.
James
O'Neill also alternated the roles of Othello and Iago with
Booth, with the latter's complimentary appreciation of O'Neill's
interpretation of the Moor being immortalized in O'Neill's son
Eugene's play
Long Day's Journey Into
Night.
Othello opened at the Donmar
Warehouse
in London on 4 December 2007, directed by Michael Grandage, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello, Ewan McGregor as Iago and Kelly Reilly as Desdemona. Despite
tickets selling as high as £2000 on web-based vendors, only Ejiofor
was praised by critics, winning the
Laurence Olivier Award for his
performance; with McGregor and Reilly's performances receiving
largely negative notices. Stand up comedian
Lenny Henry was the latest big name to play
Othello.
He did so on a tour at the start of 2009
produced by Northern Broadsides
in collaboration with West Yorkshire Playhouse
.
Adaptations and cultural references
Opera
Otello, a three act opera with an
Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di
Salsi and music by Gioachino
Rossini was first performed at the Teatro del Fondo, Naples
, on December
4, 1816. The opera deviates from Shakespeare's original in
some aspects: Jago is less diabolical than his Shakespearean
counterpart, the setting is Venice rather than Cyprus, and the
composer and librettist provided an alternative happy ending to the
work, a common practice with drama and opera at one time. The opera
is rarely performed.
Giuseppe Verdi and librettist Arrigo Boito adapted Shakespeare's play to
Otello, an Italian grand opera in
four acts that was first performed at the Teatro alla
Scala
, Milan
on February
5, 1887. It was Verdi's second to last opera (followed by
another Shakespeare adaptation,
Falstaff) and is considered by many to
be Verdi's greatest opera. Verdi and his librettist dispensed with
the first act of the play. The popular opera attracts world class
singers and is found in the repertoire of prominent opera houses.
Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film
version of
Verdi's opera starring
Plácido Domingo as Othello won
the
BAFTA for
foreign language film.
(Indeed, according to the Kennedy
Center
's biographical note on Domingo, Laurence Olivier
saw Domingo in Otello and, in a
mockingly furious voice, told Franco Zeffirelli: "You realize that
Domingo plays Othello as well as I do, and he has that
voice!")
On February 25, 1999,
Bandanna, an English language opera in
a prologue and two acts with a libretto by Irish poet Paul Muldoon
and music by
Daron Hagen was performed
by the opera theater at The University of Texas in Austin. The
opera is set in 1968 on the
United States–Mexican border
and borrows elements from Cinthio's tale, Shakespeare's play, and
Verdi's opera.
Ballet
[[Image:Othello Bouchet and
Gonzalez.jpg|thumb|upright=.75|left|Hélène Bouchet andAmilcar Moret
Gonzalez in
Othello, a ballet choreographed by
John Neumeier for the
Hamburg Ballet in 1985]]Mexican choreographer
José Limón created a 20-minute,
four character ballet called
The
Moor's Pavane to the music of
Henry Purcell in 1949. The work premiered at
the Connecticut College American Dance Festival in the same year.
American Ballet Theatre was
the first dance company outside Limon's to include the work in its
repertory. It is a standard in dance companies around the world and
notable interpreters of the Moor include
Rudolf Nureyev.
The ballet
Othello was choreographed by
John Neumeier to music by Arvo Pärt, Alfred
Schnittke, Naná Vasconcelos et al. and was premiered by the Hamburg
Ballet in Hamburg on January 27, 1985, with
Gamal Gouda as Othello,
Gigi Hyatt as Desdemona, and
Max Midinet as Jago. The work remains in the
repertoire of the
Hamburg Ballet,
seeing its 100th performance in 2008.
In 2002, modern dance choreographer
Lar
Lubovitch created a full-length ballet in three acts based on
the Shakespeare play and Cinthio's tale with a score by
Elliot Goldenthal. The work has been
staged by the
San Francisco
Ballet with
Desmond
Richardson,
Yuan Yuan Tan, and
Parrish Maynard in the principal
roles. The ballet was broadcast on
PBS's
Great Performances: Dance in
America and the program was nominated for an
Emmy Award. The ballet is recorded on Kultur
video.
Othello was first performed in New York City at the
Metropolitan Opera House, May 23,
1997, by
American Ballet
Theatre.
Other ballets include
Prologue choreographed by
Jacques d'Amboise for the
New York City Ballet in 1967 as a
prequel to Shakespeare's play,
Othello choreographed by
John Butler to the music of
Dvořák for
Carla Fracci and the
La Scala Ballet in 1976, and a
version choreographed by
Jean-Pierre Bonnefous for the
Louisville Ballet in the 1980s.
Film
- See also Shakespeare on screen
.
Two fine Italian silent versions of
Othello were shot on
location in Venice in 1909 and 1914 respectively (Buchanan,
Shakespeare on Silent Film (2009)). A further two silent
screen adaptations of
Othello (1909 and 1922) emerged from
the German film industry. The 1909 version was directed by, and
stars,
Franz Porten as Othello,
Henny Porten as Desdemona, and
Rosa Porten as Emilia. The 1922 film stars the
celebrated
Emil Jannings as Othello,
Werner Krauss as Iago, and
Ica von Lenkeffy as Desdemona (Buchanan,
Shakespeare on Silent Film (2009)).
A production of "Othello" forms the backdrop for "A Double Life,"
starring Ronald Colman as an actor who takes on the personality
traits of whatever character he happens to play.
The
Orson Welles-directed 1952 version,
The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor
of Venice was also filmed in black and white. The film
stars Welles as Othello and
Suzanne
Cloutier as Desdemona. The troubled production was filmed over
the course of three years as Welles' time and money permitted. Lack
of funds (and costumes) forced Roderigo's death scene to be shot in
a Turkish bath with performers wearing only large, ragged towels.
The film
won the Palme D'Or at the 1952 Cannes Film
Festival
.
- Othello (1955), USSR
, starring
Sergei Bondarchuk, Irina Skobtseva, Andrei Popov. Directed by
Sergei Yutkevich.
- All Night
Long (1962) A British adaptation in which the character of
Othello is Rex, a jazz bandleader. Featuring Dave Brubeck and other modern jazz musicians.
- Othello (1965)
starring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank
Finlay, and Joyce Redman
- Catch My Soul (1974)
adapted from Jack Good's
rock musical,
directed by Patrick McGoohan and
starring Richie Havens, Lance LeGault, Season
Hubley and Tony Joe White.

- Othello, the Black
Commando was a 1982 update of the film written by and
starring Max H. Boulois with Tony
Curits as Colonel Iago and Joanna
Pettet as Desdemona
- Othello (1995)
starring Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Fishburne, and Irene Jacob. Directed by Oliver Parker.
- Kaliyattam (1997), in Malayalam, a modern update, set in
Kerala
, starring
Suresh Gopi as Othello, Lal as Iago,
Manju Warrier as Desdemona, directed
by Jayaraaj.
- O (2001) a modern update, set
in an American high school. Stars Mekhi
Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett
- Omkara
(2006) (Hindi) is an Indian version of the
play, set in the state of Uttar Pradesh
. The film stars Ajay
Devgan as Omkara (Othello), Saif Ali
Khan as Langda Thyagi (Iago), Kareena
Kapoor as Dolly (Desdemona), Vivek
Oberoi as Kesu (Cassio), Bipasha
Basu as Billo (Bianca) and Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu (Emilia). The
film is directed by Vishal
Bharadwaj who earlier adapted Shakespeare's Macbeth as
Maqbool. All characters in the film
share the same letter or sound in their first name as in the
original Shakespeare classic. It is one
of the few mainstream Indian movies
to contain uncensored swear-words.
- Eloise (2002) a modern update,
set in Sydney
, NSW
,
Australia.
- Jarum Halus (2008) a modern
Malaysian film, in English and Malay by Mark Tan.
Television
Graphic novels
Othello, an adaptation by
Oscar
Zarate, Oval Projects Ltd (1985). Reprinted in 2005 by
Can of Worms Press. Includes the complete text of the
play.
Gallery
Image:FirstFolioOthello.jpg|First Folio (1623) title page
facsimileImage:John Graham A bedchamber Desdemona in Bed asleep -
Othello Act V scene 2.jpg|
A Bedchamber, Desdemona in Bed
asleep, published by John and Josiah Boydell
(1803)Image:Othellopainting.jpeg|
Othello and Desdemona in
Venice by
Théodore
Chassériau (1819–1856)Image:Othello and Desdemona by
Alexandre-Marie Colin.jpg|
Othello and Desdemona by
Alexandre-Marie Colin,
1829Image:Death of Desdemona.jpg|
The Death of Desdemona by
Eugène DelacroixImage:Edwin
Booth as Iago.jpg|
Edwin Booth as Iago,
ca. 1870Image:Salvini as Othello Vanity Fair.jpg|Italian actor
Tommaso Salvini as Othello,
1875Image:John McCullough as Othello.jpg|American actor John
McCullough as Othello, 1878Image:Othello-cwcope-1853.jpg|Othello
relating his adventures to Desdemona and Brabantio from a steel
engraving of a painting by
Charles
West Cope, 1873Image:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Desdemona's Death
Song.JPG|
Desdemona's Death Song by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ca.
1878-1881Image:Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster.JPG|Thomas Keene
in
Othello, 1884Image:Desdemona
othello.jpg|
Desdemona by
Frederic Leighton, ca. 1888
References
- Oxford School Shakespeare - Othello
- Shakespeare, William. Four Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King
Lear, Macbeth. Bantam Books, 1988.
- Hecatommithi
- Professor Nabil Matar (April 2004), Shakespeare and the
Elizabethan Stage Moor, Sam Wanamaker Fellowship Lecture,
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (cf. Mayor of London (2006), Muslims in London, pp. 14-15, Greater London
Authority)
- Bevington, David and Kate Bevington, translators. "Un Capitano
Moro" in Four Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear,
Macbeth. Bantam Books, 1988. pp. 371-387.
- Sanders, Norman (ed.). Othello (2003, rev. ed.), New
Cambridge Shakespeare, p. 1.
- Shakespeare, William. Four Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King
Lear, Macbeth. Bantam Books, 1988.
- Honigmann (ed), Othello (1997), Arden Shakespeare,
Appendix 1, pp 344-350.
- Paul Westine and Barbara Mowat, eds. Othello, Folger
Shakespeare Library edition (New York: WSP, 1993), p.xlv.
- Paul Westine and Barbara Mowat, eds. Othello, Folger
Shakespeare Library edition (New York: WSP, 1993),
pp.xlv-xlvi.
- Vaughan, p.59
- "Moor, n2", The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd
edtn.
- Michael Neill, ed. Othello (Oxford University Press),
2006, p. 45-7.
- Honigmann, 17.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 'Black', 1c.
- E.A.J. Honigmann, ed. Othello. London: Thomas Nelson,
1997, p. 15.
- Honigmann, 2-3.
- Shakespeare, William. Four Tragedies. Bantam Books,
1988.
- Loomis, Catherine ed. (2002). William Shakespeare: A
Documentary Volume, Vol. 263, Dictionary of Literary
Biography, Detroit: Gale, 200-1.
- F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964,
Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 346-47.
- Jet magazine, 30 June 2003
- The (London) Independent, 6 July 2003
- Christgau, Robert. Any Old Way You Choose It, ISBN
0815410417
- Laurence Olivier, Confessions of an Actor, Simon and
Shuster (1982) p. 262
- Otello (1986)
- Othello (1922)
- The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952)
- See
- All Night Long (1962)
- Othello (1965)
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084453/
- Othello (1995)
- Kaliyattam (1997)
- O (2001)
- Jarum Halus
official website
- Othello (1981) (TV)
- Othello (2001) (TV)
External links