The Bucharest National Opera (ONB) will present two performances of Verdi’s Otello where the leading roles will be held by invited soloists, representing the “new wave of the world’s top opera singers.” 

The two performances are scheduled for June 8 and June 11.

Tenor Arsen Soghomonyan will have the lead role, the soprano Hrachuhí Bassénz has been cast as Desdemona, while Iago will be played by the baritone Vladislav Sulimsky, in a production by Giancarlo del Monaco.

The ONB orchestra will be conducted by Christian Badea, in his first appearance with the Bucharest institution.

Badea has directed hundreds of performances in the leading opera houses around the world, throughout a career spanning more than four decades. At the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Sydney Opera or Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, his vast repertoire of more than 100 titles from Gluck and Mozart to Shostakovich and Barber focused on the great masterpieces composed by Verdi, Puccini or Wagner. Otello has often been part of this repertoire.

Arsen Soghomonyan (Otello) has a well-established reputation in the spinto-dramatic tenor repertoire at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper München or Berliner Philharmoniker. He made his Covent Garden debut as Don José of Carmen, soon to take on the role of Otello, which he sang in concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Zubin Mehta, a role that became his vocal signature. Soghomonyan comes to Bucharest immediately after a series of Otello at the Bayerische Staatsoper München.

Hrachuhí Bassénz (Desdemona) made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London with Adriana Lecouvreur, followed by Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra. The presence of the soprano in Bucharest is followed by a series of performances in the role of Desdemona from Otello, which she will sing next month again at Covent Garden.

Vladislav Sulimsky (Iago) comes to Bucharest after a series of very successful shows with the Queen of Spades at the Baden Baden Festival, with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Kirill Petrenko. After his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper München in 2019, as Count di Luna in Il trovatore, and the series of Otello at the Wiener Staatsoper, he is regarded as one of the most important Verdi baritones on the international stage. After the performances in Bucharest, Sulimsky will make his debut at the Opéra de Paris and the Concertgebouw.

The cast also includes Mihaela Ișpan (Emilia), Liviu Indricău (Cassio), Andrei Lazăr (Roderigo), Filip Panait (Lodovico) and Iustinian Zetea (Montano), together with Bucharest National Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

Tickets can be purchased online from the ONB website or at the box office of the Bucharest National Opera.

(Opening photo: Romulus Hossu/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com