Word: desdemona
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...enthusiastically received, especially in London, where one of the city's leading actresses played Desdemona to his Othello...
...than Robeson's voice. Certainly it is majestic, especially in the fight scenes, and its softness when talking about the "gentle Desdemona" is almost saccharine in its sweetness. Yet there is still the "singing" quality in Robeson's voice that, while it surely months Shakespear's poetry to perfection, detracts from the presentation of the lines by making the audience unsure whether Robeson is singing or speaking...
...Hagen's Desdemona is the third highlight of the play. Her acting as an innocent ingenue bears out the angelic descriptions of her earlier in the play. And when she sings the song her mother taught her before the death scene, the slight, hoarse voice carries a sheer emotionalism that cries out against the injustice of her fate...
Robeson caught, too, much of the final Othello who stifles Desdemona' not savagely from hate, but solemnly for honor. Earlier, however, when Othello's tortured soul is seared with rage, Robeson unwisely tried to reproduce Othello's violence-which on the stage becomes grotesque-instead of finding a way to suggest...
...Iago that could be both Othello's friend and enemy. Margaret Webster as Emilia was as competent an actress as she is a director, and turned in one of the best supporting performances of many seasons, while Uta Hagen was both charming and beautiful in the role of Desdemona...