Othello

By: William Shakespeare, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Bill Rauch - director

Narrated by: full cast

Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Passionate Love in a Prejudiced World

In Shakespeare’s most intimate tragedy, director Bill Rauch explores racism, religious bias, xenophobia, and the more disturbing aspects of relationships in the context of our society’s ongoing struggle with polarizing differences.

Consumed by their bigotry, those who praised the Moorish general Othello’s military successes now reject his marriage to Desdemona. The newlyweds are determined to overcome all obstacles, but Othello’s assignment in an exotic new location draws them into the web of his lieutenant Iago, whose resentment and demons know no bounds.

Public Domain (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Outstanding

For a first time listener of the play, I found it really good, really intense, and definitely needed some therapy afterwards….highly recommend the great courses work on the Shakespeare tragedies. Also available on audible, helps put it into context.

Simply Perfection.

This was such a beautiful listen. The sound quality, the sound effects, and the music were all so gorgeously crisp and made me feel like I was sitting in Ashland, Oregon watching this play while drinking mulled wine. Each actors craft was elegantly and powerfully displayed in this recording and are obviously all top notch. Thank you Audible, so much for making this available to me (and others).

Tremendous Production

I suspect that if you don’t know Othello, this will be a little harder to get into, but still worth your time. For someone like me who does know the play, this production is breathtaking.

Best version ever

This is some of the best acting I've ever heard. I teach high school students and for mist of them this is their 3rd play and is their favorite mainly becasuebthe actors in this version do such a good job with expression and inflection that they make Shakespeare's complex diction understandable. I love this version and the actors who played Othello and Iago were brilliant.

Best Way to Understand Shakespeare!

It REALLY helped to hear the inflection and tone of the actors! Although this was a terribly sad storyline, as one of his Tragedies, it was well worth the listen, and our group had an excellent discussing afterward.

Not my favorite Shakespeare

Not my favorite Shakespeare play but the cast did a good job conveying the action. The actress who played Desdemona was slightly weaker than the others - I couldn’t tell what her tone was supposed to be, especially in the beginning, but Iago and Othello were excellent.

The most beautiful tragedy!

I got lost in this dramatization. The telling was just as great a work of art as the writing itself.

More honorable than tragic

Listening to this dramatic performance shows that the Shakespearian story of Othello is more about the less publicized honorable nature of a seemingly disadvantaged individual than it is just another romantic tragedy.

True text with modern inflection

Often, Shakespeare loses me because Middle English language and phrasing are too antiquated for me to easily follow. This rendition is expertly acted, offering true language in modern inflection. Really well done.

Classic presented well

Shakespeare classic presented well. However I did not like the use of modern background sound effects like police siren. Should have stuck to horse’s hoofs etc.