“‘Desdemona’ Talks Back to ‘Othello’” is an article that happened to catch my eye as I was reading the Times this week because I’m currently doing a scene from Othello in Shakespeare. I wasn’t sure, specifically, what kind of reference to Othello this would be, but the article is called went on to describe a production called ‘Desdemona’ by Nobel Prize winning novelist Toni Morrison. “Part play, part concert, it is an interactive narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks to the audience from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war — and the transformative power of love.” Read more about the production in the article, it sounds pretty awesome.
While the production itself sounds really interesting and evocative, it’s what sprung the event to life that interested me most. Peter Sellars, the opera director, and Toni Morrison got into an argument about Othello. Sellars said he hated it and that it made absolutely no sense, while Morrison argued in favor of Shakespeare’s classic. The two then had a face off. Both said they would encounter Othello from different angles and try to learn from one another something new about this piece. In 2009, Sellars directed a high-tech version of Othello starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz. Now, Morrison has allowed Sellars to direct her conversational response back to Othello, which is her piece ‘Desdemona’.
These artists made a pact to challenge each other and renew their faith in a classic tale. Regardless of how they feel about the play now, they both took the initiative to learn something new and inspire each other through art. I wish I could see Morrison’s ‘Desdemona’, so that it could inspire my Desdemona in the same way these two incredible artists inspire each other.
