Kiri Te Kanawa had made a surprise Met debut on the broadcast of Otello earlier in the year this performance was given. Her voice is head-spinningly beautiful, the middle smooth as silk, the top glowing. She would refine her interpretation over the years, but the essence of the role is already here. She is reason enough to invest in this set. Carlo Cossutta made his debut in this role in these performances. He sings extremely well, his characterization less hysterical than others. The first act duet with Te Kanawa is a highlight of the performance. Piero Cappuccilli sings a strong Iago, joining Cossutta on the top A at the end of "Si, per ciel". He indulges in some hammy laughter at the end of the Credo and especially at the end of Act 3. He was never a particularly subtle singer. Elisabeth Bainbridge makes an assertive Emilia, Gwynne Howell a sexy Lodovico. Mackerras' tempi are a bit slower than usual, yet it all works. He gives us the extended Paris Act 3 finale.I don't know where the tapist was sitting, but the sound is mostly very good, the voices clearly heard except at the very beginning. Th

The source of the performance seems to be a combination of both tape and LP. There are some minor distortions towards the end of Act 1 that clear up and some record scratches in Acts 2 and 4, nothing that disturbs enjoyment, but strange all the same. Fans of the opera or the singers should indulge in this.

Very beautiful evening, Te Kanawa exquisite apart few pitch problems, Cappuccilli sings very well but the character escapes him totally, awful Cassio . Good recording for an in house captation, marred here (especially in CD 1) by a transfer with many saturations and too heavy bass .

1 May 1974 (Premiere and first Otello of Cossutta)

In the years 1970-80, the world had three top Otellos: in order of seniority, Jon Vickers, Carlo Cossutta, and Placido Domingo. They all sang more than one revival of the opera at Covent Garden; it was a luxury to compare them then, but now they represent a collective peak never subsequently matched. (Domingo’s Otello, new that decade, continued into the 1990s.) Cossutta’s voice was huge, virile, sexy, baritonal, passionate, and he was the only one of the three to bring Italian diction and placement to the part; I hear here why I adored him then, and surrender again. The surprise of this revival was that Te Kanawa, who had just sung Desdemona at the New York Met with Vickers, seemed to have a voice as large as both Cossutta and Cappucilli. It was the most vocally ample “Otello” I have ever known, and all three voices combined beauty with eloquence. This was the era when Cappucilli moved from his former dull efficiency to a new interpretative intensity: the dark power and easily biting diction of his Iago amazed. But the greatest factor here is Charles Mackerras. Listen to the astounding power of the whole orchestra under the “Sì, pel ciel” duet; and the phenomenal grace of the woodwind at many points; the conviction and sweep of the whole. Colin Davis and Carlos Kleiber conducted superb revivals in those years; I already knew my Toscanini and Serafin recordings; but I understand increasingly now why 1974 reviews said that this was the greatest “Otello” heard since De Sabata.