YMMV / Otello

• Adaptation Displacement: Before Verdi, Gioachino Rossini had also done an opera called Otello. However, that deviates heavily from Shakespeare's play, instead being based on a French adaptation of the story, whereas Verdi's opera is much more faithful to Shakespeare's version. Guess which one is most performed today?
• Awesome Music: It's Verdi, after all. Special mention goes to "Una vela!", "Gia nella notte densa", "Si, pel ciel", and the hauntingly beautiful Willow Song.
• Broken Base: The use of blackface for Otello. For many years, white tenors have used blackface when singing Otello, and only in 2015 did the Met Opera stop using it. Some people argue that using dark makeup is simply a matter of costuming, and not a true example of racist blackface, but it's safe to say that it's a controversial topic in this current day and age.
• Nightmare Fuel: Act IV really escalates in nightmare fuel. Desdemona's Willow Song is haunting, and the music that plays when Otello enters the bedroom is very sinister and foreboding, and in the moments leading up to Desdemona's death, the music really becomes almost terrifying as it conveys the anger and downfall of a good man. In addition, Iago's "Credo" aria is quite frightening as well.
• Tear Jerker: You can expect this, since it's based off Shakespeare's original tragedy, of course. But Act IV is filled with this. First, there's Desdemona's "Ave Maria", and also Otello's "Niun mi tema", right after he realizes the truth and that Desdemona was innocent, is downright painful to listen to. And of course, his suicide and the moments where he sings his last lines before dying is also quite heartwrenching.
• The Woobie: Just like Shakespeare's play, we have Desdemona and Otello, in which their loving marriage is destroyed violently due to Iago's cruel manipulation of Otello.

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