Review - Image
Reviews - Opera
As Desdemona in Verdi's Otello at Grand Theatre de Luxembourg
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In the unrelenting cold of the bedroom, Meagan Miller, who until then stood in the supporting role to her fierce partner and with only the dark color of her trained soprano allowed us to guess at the inevitable disaster, opened to her top form. Her mournful songs in flowingly immaculate modulations built the ideal counterweight to the creed of the evil Iago.
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Kriegenburg's plausible staging illuminates especially the relationship Otello/Desdemona. Meagan Miller, vocally sovereign, defines her role in noteworthy confidence: at least initially, an at-eye-level partner who loves an intact, sensitive Otello, who certainly does not last long. She can not understand what is going on inside him, and therefore is almost inevitably heading into disaster.
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The latter [Desdemona] embodied with delicate shyness and restraint by the American Meagan Miller, appealed with her lucid acting, and mainly through her crystal-clear, elegantly guided, well-tuned, emotionally internally-memorable soprano.
As Desdemona in Verdi's Otello in Syracuse
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Soprano Meagan Miller was an attractive, tall and vocally secure and powerful Desdemona who sang her role with a rich tone and a great deal of vocal involvement. In the final duet of Act 1 her singing was soaring but unforced, and her part in the difficult Act 3 ensemble (much of it surprisingly uncut) was clear and forceful despite the fact that she sang much of it lying face down on the floor of the great hall where Otello had thrown her. Miller’s Act 4 Willow Song and Ave Maria were plangently sung, with the final “ave” held in an exquisite pianissimo.”
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[Whatever] may have lacked, Meagan Miller, as Desdemona, made up for. Hers was an absolutely stunning performance, bordering even on the incredible. Her “Love Duet” and “Jealousy Duet” were sublime. At different times during the opera, she sang flat on her stomach and flat on her back- and still sounded full-voiced and expressive. But the real tour de force came in the final act, with the “Willow Song” and “Ave Maria” – each of which was worth the price of admission.
