Otello at Fondazione Teatro Carlo Coccia

January 24, 2025 Fondazione Teatro Carlo Coccia

Her voice immediately stands out for the beauty of its timbre, which is that of a lyric soprano, but full, soft, enveloping, and at the same time extremely delicate in its ability to bend sounds into half-voices of unusual warmth and enchanting density. In short, she is not the usual Desdemona with a voice folded into an angelic singing of vaporous candor, but seems to follow in the footsteps of the Tebaldi tradition, favoring an opulent timbral blend that highlights her even when the lyricism must unfold on the wings of an intensity that sees her assert herself in the great concertato of the third act, where the voice vibrates and fills the hall, evoking vocal emotions of times past.

January 24, 2025 Fondazione Teatro Carlo Coccia

Standing out above the entire cast is the performance of Iwona Sobotka in the role of Desdemona. This artist is a revelation for multiple factors, chief among them being her ability to consistently maintain a fluid and soft vocal emission regardless of the excitement level of the parts; this mastery and technical prowess brings to life a character who is true, believable, and human while simultaneously pure, angelic, and transfigured in her essence. Sobotka, in addition to the aforementioned softness, possesses a very solid and penetrating upper register and the capability for shifting dynamics; her interpretative force and stage presence are nearly total and marked by a quintessence of nobility and refined nonchalance that give us a Desdemona who is both neoclassical and transcendent, sometimes resolved into an intangible archetype almost touching the very essence of love and the purity of the innocent soul.

January 24, 2025 Fondazione Teatro Carlo Coccia

Very positive notes also come from the cast, where Iwona Sobotka\'s Desdemona stands out above all. With a rich and well-timbred voice across her entire range, delivered everywhere with mastery of style and technique, whether deployed in fiery slashes or in sheets of sound of ethereal fullness, the Polish soprano, virtually unknown in Italy, portrays Verdi\'s heroine with a proud dignity that seduces and enchants: devoted wife, anxious lover, innocent but not naive victim, she manages to tremble equally with passion and dismay, weaving through her singing the portrait of a Desdemona of vibrant emotional intensity.

January 24, 2025 Fondazione Teatro Carlo Coccia

The true revelation of the evening was the Polish Iwona Sobotka [...] Her Desdemona is of the old school, far from more intimate and lyrical interpretations, and built on a rich and powerful vocality, with an almost dramatic soprano weight. Her Desdemona looks back to the distant models of Caniglia and Tebaldi in terms of vocal style and interpretative taste. Her voice is not only large and sonorous but very beautiful in timbre and color, and extremely comfortable in the high notes, which are powerful and richly sonorous.