Beginning in the late 1970s she began to tackle soprano roles, including Selika in L ' Africaine, Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, Lady Macbeth Macbeth, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites ( Met1977 ), Tosca, Norma ( from Boston 1976 till Messina 1989 ), Aida ( Boston 1980 and 1989 ), Desdemona ( Otello ) ( 1981 ), Leonore ( Fidelio ) ( Met 1983 ), Iphigénie ( 1984 – 85 ), Alceste ( 1985 ), Médée ( Cherubini ) ( 1986 )..

The Los Angeles Opera company, which was inaugurated in 1986 with a production of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo, traces its roots back to the Los Angeles Civic Grand Opera, which was formed in 1948.

Beside her many opera performances, she also appeared as Desdemona in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Verdi's Otello in 1986, alongside Plácido Domingo.

* Verdi: Otello ( under Lorin Maazel, 1986 ) ( EMI )

In 1986, she performed her first Desdemona in Rossini's Otello in Venice.

* February 5 – The Giuseppe Verdi opera Otello premieres at La Scala.

* CLV 0604 – Shakespeare – Otello.

* Francesco Tamagno ( 1850 – 1905 ), a great operatic tenor and the creator of the role of Verdi's Otello, who lived at Varese and died at his villa there, aged 54.

* August – The annual Salzburg Festival takes place in Salzburg, Austria, featuring four opera productions from the Vienna State Opera: Mozart's Idomeneo and Die Zauberflöte, and Verdi's Otello, all conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Berg's Wozzeck, conducted by Karl Böhm, as well as seven orchestral concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra ( two conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler and one each by Edwin Fischer, Rafael Kubelík, Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, and Leopold Stokowski ), six choral concerts, four chamber-music concerts, three solo recitals, and a number of smaller events.

* Gioachino Rossini – Il Barbiere di Siviglia ; Otello

To give just five specific examples of Tamagno's foreign engagements in the wake of the 1887 premiere of Otello, he performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1894 – 1895, at London's Lyceum Theatre in 1889, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in 1896-97, at the Paris Opera in 1897, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1895 and 1901.

Scott declares in The Record of Singing ( pp. 131 – 133 ) that Tamagno's Otello recordings are " invaluable historically " with the Esultate in particular displaying " amazing force " and all of them exhibiting an " intensity of utterance " that is " unique ".

* Verdi: Otello ( with Scotto, Domingo – Levine, cond.

Although they are most remembered for the Death Wish sequels and Chuck Norris action pictures such as The Delta Force and Invasion U. S. A., and even the vigilante thriller Exterminator 2 ( the sequel to 1980 ’ s The Exterminator ), Cannon ’ s output was actually far more varied, with musical and comedy films like Breakin ’, Breakin ’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, The Last American Virgin, and the U. S. release of The Apple ; period romance pictures like Lady Chatterley's Lover ( 1981 ), Bolero, and Mata Hari ( 1985 ); science fiction and fantasy films like Hercules, Lifeforce and The Barbarians ; as well as serious pictures like John Cassavetes ’ Love Streams, Zeffirelli ’ s Otello ( a film version of the Verdi opera ), Norman Mailer ’ s Tough Guys Don ’ t Dance, Andrei Konchalovsky ’ s Runaway Train, and Shy People ; and action / adventure films such as the 3-D Treasure of the Four Crowns, King Solomon ’ s Mines, Cobra and American Ninja.

it: Otello ( film 1965 )

it: Otello ( film 1952 )

This dispute originated in a disagreement over the production of his Giovanna d ' Arco in 1845 ; however the composer later conducted his Requiem there on 25 May 1874 and he announced in 1886 that La Scala would host the premiere of his penultimate opera Otello.

Some years earlier, Martinelli had had Antonin Trantoul, who had sung Otello at La Scala in the twenties, held up to him as a shining example ; but at La Scala, those who still remembered the very first Otello, Francesco Tamagno, had found Trantoul completely unsatisfactory.

* Otello ( Verdi ; 1887 )

* Dvořák, Overtures: In Nature's Realm, Carneval, Otello ; Scherzo Capriccioso London Symphony Orchestra ( 1966, 1965, 1965, 1963 respectively ), DECCA SXL 6348

Tebaldi made her American debut in 1950 as Aïda at the San Francisco Opera ; her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on January 31, 1955, as Desdemona opposite Mario del Monaco's Otello.

* Verdi ; Otello ; Levine ; RCA

Otello ; Levine ; Met 1978

* Verdi: Otello ( Rysanek, Pirazzini, Vickers ; Serafin, 1960 ) RCA

Muzio made her operatic début in Arezzo ( 15 January 1910 ) in the title-role of Massenet's Manon, and despite her youth she made rapid progress in the opera-houses of Italy, leading to débuts at La Scala in Milan in 1913 ( as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello ), in Paris ( as Desdemona ) and in London at Covent Garden ( as Puccini's Manon Lescaut ) in 1914 ; she stayed on in London to sing other roles including Mimì and Tosca ( both with Caruso ).

Indeed, in 1891, his keenly awaited interpretation of the title role in Verdi's last tragic masterpiece, Otello, had disappointed the critics somewhat ; while expertly sung, it lacked the clarion ring and elemental force that his main tenor rival, Francesco Tamagno ( 1850-1905 ), had brought to the part.

Graf staged several operas for the Salzburg Festival: Otello ( 1951, with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting, 1952 with Mario Rossi conducting ; both times with Ramon Vinay as Otello ), Le nozze di Figaro ( 1952, with Rudolf Moralt conducting, with Erich Kunz, George London, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried, Hilde Güden ; 1953 revival conducted by Furtwängler and Paul Schöffler replacing London ), a legendary Don Giovanni conducted by Furtwängler and designed by Clemens Holzmeister ( 1953, with Cesare Siepi, Elisabeth Grümmer, Anton Dermota, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Otto Edelmann, Walter Berry, Raffaele Arié, Erna Berger ; revival 1954, with Dezsö Ernster replacing Arié ; 1956 with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting ), Gottlob Frick replacing Ernster, Leopold Simoneau replacing Dermota, Lisa Della Casa replacing Schwarzkopf, Fernando Corena replacing Edelmann, Rita Streich replacing Berger ) an equally legendary Die Zauberflöte conducted by Georg Solti and designed by Oskar Kokoschka ( 1955, cast included Gottlob Frick, Dermota, Schöffler, Kunz, Grümmer, Erika Köth, Peter Klein ; revival in 1956 with Berry replacing Kunz ); Elektra ( 1957, conducted by Mitropoulos, with Inge Borkh, Della Casa, Jean Madeira, Max Lorenz, Kurt Böhme ), Simon Boccanegra ( 1961, with Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducting, with Tito Gobbi, Leyla Gencer, Giorgio Tozzi, Rolando Panerai ), and finally La rappresentazione di anima e di corpo by Emilio de ' Cavalieri ( the production premiered in 1968 and was shown each year until 1973 ).

Of these Otello formed the climax to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by the composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Otello, based on William Shakespeare's play, with a libretto written by the younger composer of Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887.

It is an accurate and learned, yet dramatic and humorous, depiction of Verdi's relationship with his librettist Arrigo Boito, and the attempts of Giulio Ricordi and Franco Faccio to get the two to collaborate on a project, Otello.

But he continued to develop his style, composing perhaps the greatest French Grand Opera, Don Carlos, and ending his career with two Shakespeare-inspired works, Otello and Falstaff, which reveal how far Italian opera had grown in sophistication since the early 19th century.

While it has not proved to be as immensely popular as the Verdi works that immediately preceded it, namely Aida and Otello, Falstaff has long been an admired favorite with critics and musicians because of its brilliant orchestration, scintillating libretto and refined melodic invention.

The second performance was Thomas ' Hamlet with the baritone Titta Ruffo During the inaugural season seventeen operas were performed with famous stars such as Ruffo, Feodor Chaliapin in Boito's Mefistofele, Antonio Paoli in Verdi's Otello, and the world

* The play After Aida — a 1985 play-with-music by Julian Mitchell — depicts the struggle of Giulio Ricordi and Franco Faccio to get the retired Verdi to collaborate with young Boito on a project, which resulted in Otello.

He was renowned for his affinity with the works of Verdi, notably his breakthrough role of Ford in Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra and Iago in Otello.

Balfe wrote another opera Un avvertimento ai gelosi at Pavia, and Enrico Quarto at Milan, where he had been engaged to sing in in Rossini's Otello with Malibran at La Scala in 1834.

During his years in Italy Meyerbeer became acquainted with, and impressed by, the works of his contemporary Gioachino Rossini who by 1816, at the age of 24, was already director of both major opera houses in Naples and in the same year premiered his operas The Barber of Seville and Otello.

The Met's experiments with television go back to 1948 when a complete performance of Verdi's Otello was broadcast live on ABC-TV with Ramón Vinay, Licia Albanese, and Leonard Warren.

Although Otello was his best role, throughout his career, Del Monaco sang a number of other roles with great acclaim, for example: Canio in Pagliacci ( Leoncavallo ), Radames in Aida ( Verdi ), Don Jose in Carmen ( Bizet ), Chenier in Andrea Chénier ( Giordano ), Manrico in Il trovatore ( Verdi ), Samson in Samson and Delilah ( Saint-Saëns ), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino ( Verdi ).

She created the leading female role in Elisabetta, regina d ' Inghilterra ( 1815 ), Otello ( 1816 ), Armida ( 1817 ), Mosè in Egitto ( 1818 ), Maometto II ( 1820 ), and five other Rossini operas up to and including his final contribution to the genre, Semiramide, which was also written with Colbran in the major role.

During the following years she starred in the telecasts of Manon Lescaut, Luisa Miller, Don Carlo, Il Trittico, Francesca da Rimini and as Desdemona with Jon Vickers in Verdi's Otello.

Other important commercial recordings include Rigoletto with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Carlo Bergonzi under Rafael Kubelík, Turandot with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli under Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, I Pagliacci with José Carreras, Cavalleria rusticana with Plácido Domingo, Norma with Tatiana Troyanos, Otello ( Verdi's ), Adriana Lecouvreur and Andrea Chénier.

Thus, in 1868 when the composer died in Paris, his Stabat Mater ( Rossini ) was performed along with Semiramide and Otello.

But his international career did not take off explosively until 1888, with the role of Otello — which Verdi had penned with Tamagno's voice in mind — serving as his global calling card.