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Cover of the program book for the April 8 and 12, 1991, performances at Orchestra Hall
To conclude his twenty-two seasons as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s eighth music director in 1991, Sir Georg Solti led concert performances of Verdi’s Otello at Orchestra Hall on April 8 and 12 and at Carnegie Hall on April 16 and 19. Principal soloists included soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as Desdemona, tenor Luciano Pavarotti as Otello, and baritone Leo Nucci as Iago. All four performances were recorded live by London Records.
After the first performance in Orchestra Hall, John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune reported that “Solti had his Chicago Symphony playing this formidably difficult score as if it were a seasoned opera orchestra; every opera house should have such a band of virtuosi in residence. No minor contributions to the evening were made by the Chicago Symphony Chorus, superbly prepared by the redoubtable Margaret Hillis [along with guest chorus director Terry Edwards], and augmented by the Chicago Children’s Choir.”
Kiri Te Kanawa and Luciano Pavarotti onstage at Orchestra Hall, April 8, 1991 (Jim Steere photo)
Donal Henahan, following the first Carnegie Hall concert, in The New York Times praised “The Chicago, never in our time less than a great orchestra, provided many thrills. In the stupendous opening scene, it and Margaret Hillis’s chorus unleashed every erg of sonic energy the hall could tolerate, vividly establishing the mood for violent events to come.” In London’s Financial Times, Andrew Porter noted, “I’ve never heard Solti’s famous excitability so completely harnessed to a disciplined, long-lined, marvelously vivid, engrossing account of the whole score.”
At the conclusion of the April 19 concert—Solti’s last as music director—von Rhein reported, “A mighty shout of approval immediately went up from the house.” This continued for several minutes until Solti took “co-concertmaster Rubén González by the hand and [led] him off the stage—a sign for the rest of the Orchestra to follow. . . . He will, of course, return to Chicago in the fall, and for many years thereafter, as CSO music director laureate. But no Solti farewell will ever seem as emotionally momentous as this one.”
This article also appears here and portions previously appeared here.
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October 10, 2020 at 9:18 AM
Remembering Luciano Pavarotti | from the archives
[…] VERDI Otello April 8 and 12, 1991, Orchestra Hall April 16 and 19, 1991, Carnegie Hall Otello Luciano Pavarotti, tenor Desdemona Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano Iago Leo Nucci, baritone Emilia Elzbieta Ardam, mezzo-soprano Cassio Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor Roderigo John Keyes, tenor Montano Alan Opie, baritone Lodovico Dimitri Kavrakos, bass A Herald Richard Cohn, baritone Chicago Symphony Chorus Margaret Hillis, director Terry Edwards, guest chorus master Chicago Children’s Choir Leslie Britton, director (Chicago) Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus Elena Doria, director (New York) […]