Elliot Goldenthal's Othello, Ballet in Three Acts

Review by Karim Elmahmoudi

When I first heard Lar Lubovitch's ballet production of Othello would be performed by the San Francisco Ballet, I jumped at the opportunity to see the West Coast premiere of this major new work for several reasons. First, it would give me an opportunity to support and encourage the creation of new large scale classical music by great artists. Second, it would allow me a rare chance to hear live music written by the talented composer Elliot Goldenthal with the great fidelity and high dynamics only a concert hall and live orchestra can provide.

All five nights of the show were sellouts despite mediocre reviews of the choreography from the New York world premiere. When I made it to my seat, the first thing I noticed was some very unusual orchestral instruments. As any fan of his film music already knows, Goldenthal is a master of exotic instrumentation, mood, color, and texture. Aside from the standard modern orchestra, Goldenthal's musical vision was executed with the help of instruments such as the glass harmonica, two pianos, three bass drums, saxophone, contrabass clarinet, three piccolos, Wagner horns, and cimbasso.

The ballet is composed of three acts of approximate 35-minute duration each and a brief overture featuring several of the ballet's main thematic material. Instead of being a ballet telling the story of Othello, this ballet gives us the mood and mental state of the characters of Giraldi Cinthio/William Shakespeare's play through several key moments of the story. The set consisted of background slide images and a mostly minimalist set of four large slabs of glass that become more fragmented as the story progresses.

When the overture begins, at once one can tell this is pure Goldenthal with sharp pounding bursts from the percussion and brass. It reminded me a bit of a combination between the first minute of John Adams' Harmonielehre and Goldenthal's own Interview with a Vampire during the action sequences. In fact throughout the production there were hints of various other great classic works--some were pulled off more successfully then others. Strong echoes of John Adams, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky are heard as are stylistic impersonations of jazz, atonal, and African tribal music.

The overture quiets and we are left hearing a very haunting chord progression on the solo glass harmonica that makes an appearance during many of the ballet's significant moments. The sound of this instrument is haunting and it is easy to see why Goldenthal likes it so much when evoking an "other-worldly" type of atmosphere. In the low registers, this instrument sounds like a bass clarinet, but in the high registers it sounds more like rubbing water filled crystal with your fingers. When chords are played on this instrument they have an omnipresent effect that rings in your mind long after the music is heard. It is more of an effect instrument then a melody instrument.

The first large scale entrance of the corps de ballet comes as the orchestra plays an episode very reminiscent of the Montagues and Capulets from Sergei Prokofiev's masterpiece ballet, Romeo and Juliet. This is the wedding of Othello and Desdemona. The main wedding dance is interrupted by several clowns dancing and playing to what must surely be a shock to Goldenthal fans--clown music (sort of) played on pianos.

Act II begins with the pounding storm music first heard in the opening overture. The thematic material is violent, powerful, energetic, and menacing--moods that Goldenthal conveys well in both film and concert music. After the storm and sea battle subsides Othello makes it home and the music for the rest of this act is largely a 30-minute tarantella dance that builds with great orchestral virtuosity and precision. Goldenthal also makes virtuoso use of the saxophone player--this is fun to listen to as the saxophonist plays what he surely must have thought was difficult while reading the score. Interspersed within this music is an errie theme played on the very high registers of the strings, with three piccolos, harp, and glass harmonica. This theme is both interesting and mysterious and is often heard during the ghostly visionary sections of the ballet. This act ends with a terrifying drum roll on three dueling bass drums on different sides of the orchestra pit.

Act III is the most lyrical and the most diverse of the three acts. During the fighting sequences between Othello and Iago, the orchestra plays out very strange and effective music as we go into Iago's mind and Othello's madness. The stage dims to the action and we are given a fuzzy ghostly apparition of Othello's murdered wife, Desdemona, in the afterlife. The cimbasso is heard with four Wagner horns playing mouthpiece only then squealing as Goldenthal's horns often do in his film scores. This overall effect is very bizarre yet effective and does a good job of putting the listener to the mind of a mad man. The ballet ends with the glass harmonica playing the first chord of the chord progression that began the ballet. This is heard as Othello kills himself and the curtain's fall leaving the audience hearing only the mysterious "glass" motif as Goldenthal calls it in the program notes.

The bottom line: Othello is a very ambitious project musically and must tell a passionate and complex story through its two-hour duration. This music sounds like a mix between Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, John Adams' Harmonielehre, and Goldenthal's Interview with a Vampire but is not as good as any of those individually. It is difficult to separate the music from the dancing and the dancing is not that great. In fact, I do not recall much in the way of traditional graceful ballet dancing--instead much more of the movement was harsh, jagged, and often grotesquely spastic.

Since Goldenthal has written so much music as a film composer, his music relies heavily on visual support--especially in a project as ambitious as a full length modern ballet. Much of the music contained within Othello is intriguing with genuinely interesting effects, but these episodes lie in between much filler sections.

If this music were released on CD, would I purchase it? I probably would if it were the price of a single CD but I would most likely fast forward through some sections to get to the good parts. I feel this is unlike his best film scores or his impressive classical cantata Fire Water Paper where every note has an impact. Does it sound like a film composer wrote it? Yes, but a very good film composer who is a master of mood, tension, and texture. This music had few memorable melodies, but many memorable effects.

I would give the music three out of five stars and would recommend it to those who are already fans of his music and can identify his touch and hat tipping to the legendary Russian ballets of the past. After all it is Goldenthal in a scale few of us have heard him before, but I would not use this music to introduce Goldenthal to an audience not already familiar with his style of off tune brass, sharply punctuated vulgarity, and orchestral moaning that the rest of his fans have come to love.

You can reach the author of this review by emailing KarimElm@aol.com. Or, send your comments for publication to MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com.