The Met’s new production updates the setting to the late 19th century, where the action unfolds in a shape-shifting glass palace.

In a sense, the setting echoes Otello’s outsider status: he is a foreigner surrounded by suspicious Europeans.

The island itself represents an outpost of a European power (Venice) under constant attack from an encroaching, hostile adversary (the Turkish Empire). The online and cinema broadcasts of the Met’s productions are today an integral part of the New York institution’s economics (18 million cinema tickets were sold in late 2015), and the Met’s 2016-17 season: Live in HD will début on 8 October with Tristan und Isolde, followed by Don Giovanni (22 October), the new production of L’Amour. The opera is set on the island of Cyprus in the late 15th century. Dynamic maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted. Director Bartlett Sher probed the Moor’s dramatic downfall with an outstanding cast: tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko played the doomed Otello new soprano star Sonya Yoncheva sang Desdemona, Otello’s innocent wife and victim and baritone Željko Lučić played the evil Iago, who masterminds Otello’s demise. The Met season opened with Verdi’s masterful Otello, inspired by Shakespeare’s play and matching it in tragic intensity. A 10-year tradition continued as the Metropolitan Opera's 2015-2016 Season opened with a live transmission of Verdi's Otello to multiple screens in Times Square, Septemat 6:00 pm.

Ny met opera schedule 2015