I'm looking forward to watching "O" in class. I'm pretty sure I have seen it before in middle school, but I don't remember much of it.It's interesting to watch all these different productions of the same thing because of the different interpretations that can occur. As we saw in class, the same scene was interpreted in four or five different ways. The same thing is often done on a much grander scale. Earlier this year, I watched opera's take on Othello after having just read the play in Italian (which is quite the feat if you think reading it in English is hard). I thought it was a really good production, though I am not much into opera.
One of the things that struck me about this production was how well they got Placido Domingo to look of African decent. This sounds really bad, but every time they had a close up on him, I would look to see if there were any make-up lines on his face or on his arms. But the job was so well done that I didn't see any. And then I got to thinking... I understand that Placido Domingo is one of the most revered opera singers on the planet, but couldn't they have picked an opera singer of African decent to play the part? As I said, I'm not that well-versed in opera and who's considered the tops of the tops (other than the obvious), but I'm sure there had to be someone that could have been selected in order to play the part. It seems to me kind of a faux pas to make someone out as a black man, when there were options of the real thing and thus brings into the picture the argument of race, again. Did the directors not think that an African opera singer was good enough for this production? Perhaps research would answer these questions, but I find it hard to imagine that there was not someone of African decent available, willing, or good enough to play the part. Aisde from Placido Domingo being world-reknown and thus, becoming a money/profit issue, what might have been wrong with selecting a lesser-known opera singer who could have used the opportunity to launch his career and become as beloved as Domingo?
How interesting. Another good question to ask of the Italian production is why there is still a need to "darken" Othello's skin--what would it mean in a contemporary adaptation to represent otherness in different ways? Would it remove an essential element from the original play? Become an "appropriation" (to quote from Kim Hall)?
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