Strong Cast Overcomes ‘Othello’s’ Unusual Nuances

Shakespeare’s genius in “Othello” is partly to keep us from asking when there’s been time or opportunity for Desdemona to have slept with Cassio. (There hasn’t been any.) But questions about what’s going on in Lar Lubovitch’s “Othello,” danced by San Francisco Ballet in its Southern California premiere over the weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, start at the very beginning.

Who is that solitary figure in front of the drop curtain painted with enigmatic symbols, and what is he doing? Is it Othello or Iago, his nemesis? It takes a minute to realize it’s Othello, and he’s engaging in some kind of devotional ritual before his marriage to Desdemona.

The action establishes him as a cultural outsider. It also initiates an intriguing entry into the narrative, as sets of huge glass panels designed by George Tsypin slide open to reveal other characters behind him. It’s a potent suggestion that the events are going to be viewed through Othello’s mind, perhaps as distortions.

But other questions that come up in the overlong, overwrought ballet version--based on Shakespeare’s source, rather than his play--aren’t so rich, rewarding or answerable.

Why does Emilia, Iago’s wife, adore him when he’s so abusive to her? Can we really believe his falling at her feet at the end of their duet that closes the first act? Why does Othello, who has been steadfastly ignoring Iago, suddenly begin trusting him? Why does Desdemona, who has recoiled from Iago, suddenly seek comfort in his arms? Why do the second and third acts end so anticlimactically?

Few people in the audience Saturday evening seemed troubled by these or other questions as Yuri Possokhov as Othello and Yuan Yuan Tan as Desdemona dominated a resourceful, committed San Francisco Ballet cast whose dedication extended from principals to all the corps members.

Possokhov brought heroic weight, seriousness and powerful, sometimes labored virtuosity to the title role, even when it required such excessive descent into maddened jealously. Tan was lithe, lyrical and loving as Desdemona.

Gonzalo Garcia made a boyish, devoted, totally unthreatening Cassio. Parrish Maynard was an intense Iago, even in the crazed kinetic distortions Lubovitch thought appropriate to telegraph evil. Katita Waldo was a sympathetic Emilia. It’s more the choreographer’s fault than hers that we know less about the character at the end than at the beginning of the ballet.

As Bianca, a whore of Cypress and supposed mistress of Cassio, Lorena Feijoo turned up the heat at the second-act party sufficiently. Dalene Bramer, Megan Low, Caroline Loyola, Kester Cotton and James Sofranko kept their dignity as the bizarre first-act divertissement dancers who would have been thrown out of any real state marriage.

Neal Stulberg expertly conducted members of the Pacific Symphony in Elliot Goldenthal’s derivative though masterly orchestrated commissioned score.