Othello, as Lar Lubovitch tells it in his evening-length work for American Ballet Theatre, is a tale that should resonate powerfully in the modern world, with its themes of jealousy, intrigue, and the plight of the outsider.
Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes in Lar Lubovitch’s OTHELLO. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
The dream team that Ballet to the People saw featured the two leading dramatic artists at ABT today, Marcelo Gomes and Julie Kent, in the roles of Othello and Desdemona, with indelible performances by James Whiteside as the sinister Iago and a splendid Misty Copeland as the prostitute Bianca, who serves as the catalyst for Othello’s downfall.
Yet this production is sabotaged at every turn by the wreckage of a score that oscillates between two genres of sound: the soundtrack to a car chase scene, and the eerie drone from an M. Night Shyamalan movie.
