Word: othellos
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...Tenth-graders can handle Aristotle," insists Robert Squires, president-elect of the National Council of Teachers of English. Indeed, whether or not Aristotle is mentioned by name, most high school discussions of Julius Caesar, Othello and other tragedies build on the characteristics of tragedy originally set out in a few pages of the Poetics. Such fundamental questions as "Is Brutus or Caesar the hero of the play?" and "Why would an honorable man like Brutus join in the conspiracy against Caesar?" are good Aristote lian questions. Nor is Machiavelli unfathomable in an age well versed in political manipulation. Merely asking...
With his extra measure of Ponselle's "certain something," Pavarotti occupies a unique position among the tenors of today. Placido Domingo, 38, his nearest rival, has a superbly smooth, rich voice and a wider range of roles?he sings the weighty Othello as well as bel canto parts?but he sometimes loses impact because of a veiled timbre and somewhat muted personality. Jon Vickers, 52, can match Pavarotti's intensity and puts more serious thought behind his performing, but his is an entirely different kind of voice: rugged, heroic, best suited to dramatic works such as Otello, Les Troyens...
...central role is that of Prospero, the play's Grand Puppeteer, which was highly suited to the talents of Richard Burbage, for whom Shakespeare fashioned his Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, Lear and other major parts. The role is more than three times as long as any other in the play, and the character has been thought to stand for God, Jesus, Fate, Justice, Art, Intellect, the Ideal Ruler, the Colonizer, the Grumpy Old Man, and a host of other things including Shakespeare himself...
...assigned the role here to a black actor, Joe Morton. A black Caliban is no novelty: the 1945 Webster production had the boxer-turned-actor Canada Lee, whose performance I found too monochromatic; and the 1960 mounting here had an exemplary Earle Hyman, who had been a superlative Othello here three years earlier...
...fiction writers in an age when all psychological twitches are resentlessly understood, he observes: "Since jealousy is now curable, like TB, we can't have people dying of it any more. A few rap sessions, some fearless touch ing, and a new sense of self-worth would have Othello and lago and Hamlet and Juliet back on their feet in no time...