Editing Othello (section)

=== Other media ===

==== Stage adaptations ====
Adaptations of—or borrowings from—Shakespeare's ''Othello'' began shortly after it first appeared, including [[Thomas Middleton|Middleton]] & [[William Rowley|Rowley]]'s 1622 ''[[The Changeling (play)|The Changeling]]'', [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]]'s 1632 ''[[Love's Sacrifice]]'', [[Thomas Porter (dramatist)|Thomas Porter]]'s 1662 ''[[The Villain (play)|The Villain]]'' and [[Henry Nevil Payne]]'s 1673 ''[[The Fatal Jealousy]]''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=14}} [[Edward Young]]'s 1721 play ''[[The Revenge (Young play)|The Revenge]]'' reversed the racial roles, featuring the "swagger part" of a black villain called Zanga whose victim was a white man.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=15}}

[[Voltaire]]'s 1732 French play [[Zaïre (play)|''Zaïre'']] was a "neoclassical refurbishment" of Shakespeare's "barbarous" work.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=14}} And across continental Europe through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the play was better known than Shakespeare's in [[Jean-François Ducis]]' adaptation and its subsequent translations, in which a heroine renamed Hédelmone is stabbed to death by Othello.<ref>Hoenselaars, Ton "Shakespeare and Translation" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 645-657 at p.648.</ref>

Part of the explosion of the [[Romanticism|Romantic movement]] in France was a fashion for re-writing English plays as melodrama, including [[Alfred de Vigny]]'s 1829 ''Othello'' adaptation ''Le More de Venise''.<ref>Brown, 1995, p.&nbsp;309.</ref>

After the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]], London Theatres other than the [[Patent theatre|patent companies]] got around the illegality of performing Shakespeare by allusion and parody, such as Charles Westmacott's ''Othello The Moor of Fleet Street'' at the [[Adelphi Theatre|Adelphi]] in 1833.<ref>Moody, 2002, p.&nbsp;39.</ref>

In the 19th-Century United States, ''Othello'' was often used in parody, sometimes allied with [[minstrel show]]s: with the contrast between Shakespearean verse and African-American dialect a source of racist humour.<ref>Lanier, Douglas "Oxford Shakespeare Topics: Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture", Oxford University Press, 2002, p.&nbsp;38.</ref> Indeed, racist parodies were common in the aftermath of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK and, later, in the US: for example Maurice Dowling's 1834 ''Othello Travestie'', George W H Griffin's 1870 ''Othello (Ethiopian Burlesque)'', the anonymous ''Desdemonum An Ethiopian Burlesque'' of 1874 and the anonymous ''Dar's de Money (Othello Burlesque)'' of 1880.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=42}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=102-105}}

The [[Black Arts Movement]] appropriated ''Othello'' in an entirely different vein. [[Amiri Baraka]]'s twinned 1964 plays ''[[Dutchman (play)|Dutchman]]'' and ''Slave'' are said to "represent the ultimate African American revision of ''Othello''",<ref>James Andreas' "''Othello's'' African American Progeny" in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=106}}</ref> especially in ''Dutchman's'' murder of Clay, a black man, by Lulu, a white woman.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=106}}

The ''Othello'' story became the rock opera ''[[Catch My Soul (musical)|Catch My Soul]]'' in 1968, depicting Othello as a charismatic religious cult leader, Desdemona as a naive convert, and Iago as a malcontent cult member who thinks himself to be Satan.<ref>Sanders, 2007, pp.&nbsp;73–74.</ref><ref>Lanier, 2002, p.&nbsp;71.</ref> In Murray Carlin's 1969 ''Not Now Sweet Desdemona'' the protagonist says of Shakespeare's play that it was "the first play of the Age of Imperialism ... ''Othello'' is about colour and nothing but colour."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=1}} [[Charles Marowitz]]'s 1974 ''An Othello'' reworked the play in the context of the [[Black power|Black Power]] movement.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=12}} [[C. Bernard Jackson]]'s 1979 ''Iago'' made Iago himself a Moor and a victim of racism.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=107}} And [[Caleen Sinnette Jennings]]' 1999 ''Casting Othello'' is a metadrama about a performance of Shakespeare's play, and the racial tensions it evokes.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=108}}

[[Roysten Abel]]'s ''Othello - A Play in Black and White'' is set among a group of Indian actors rehearsing a [[Kathakali]] version of ''Othello'' whose own story begins to mirror the play's plot: with Iago's seduction of Othello played as a [[guru]]-disciple relationship.<ref>Gillies, Minami, Li and Trivedi, 2002, pp.278-280.</ref>

Among [[Feminism|feminist]] appropriations of the ''Othello'' story, [[Paula Vogel]]'s 1994 ''Desdemona, A Play about a Handkerchief'' sets the story in a kitchen in Cyprus, where only Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca appear.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=108-109}} In [[Djanet Sears]]' 1998 ''Harlem Duet'', Othello's lover challenges his subservient passion: "...why you trying to please her? ... I'm so tired of pleasing White folks."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=13}} And [[Toni Morrison]] and [[Rokia Traoré]]'s 2012 ''[[Desdemona (play)|Desdemona]]'' sets its story in a timeless afterlife of the characters, in which Othello and Desdemona have leisure to talk through all facets of their relationship, and in which Desdemona is reunited with her former maid Barbary, whose actual name is Sa'ran.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=111-113}}

''Othello'' is parodied in the form of a rap song in the stage show ''[[The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)]]''.<ref>Holland, Peter "Shakespeare Abbreviated" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;26–45, at p.&nbsp;41.</ref> In 2012, the Q Brothers debuted ''Othello: The Remix'', a 90-minute hip-hop version of ''Othello'' that was part of the [[Globe to Globe Festival]] and World Shakespeare Festival.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yates |first1=Kieran |title=Othello - review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/07/othello-review |website=The Guardian |date=7 May 2012 |access-date=7 May 2012}}</ref> It was one of the few sold-out shows during the festival and went on to have several successful international tours.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Della Gatta |first1=Carla |title=Shakespeare, Race, and 'Other' Englishes: The Q Brothers's Othello: The Remix |journal=Shakespeare Survey |date=2018 |volume=71 |pages=74–87 |doi=10.1017/9781108557177.011|isbn=978-1-108-55717-7 }}</ref>

==== Audio ====

One of the first full-length plays to be released on vinyl was the Broadway production starring [[Paul Robeson]], [[José Ferrer]] and [[Uta Hagen]], issued in 1944.<ref>Lanier, Douglas "Shakespeare on the Record" in Hodgdon, Barbara and Worthen, W. B. (eds.) "A Companion to Shakespeare and Performance", Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2008, pp.&nbsp;415–435, at p.&nbsp;424. The stage production is discussed in the section "20th Century" above.</ref> ''Othello'' has been performed on at least twelve separate occasions on [[BBC Radio]].<ref>Greenhalgh, Susanne "Shakespeare Overheard: Performances, Adaptations, and Citations on Radio" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;175–198, at p.&nbsp;186.</ref>

==== Music ====

''The Willow Song'', sung by Desdemona in Act 4 Scene 3,<ref>''Othello'', 4.3.39–56.</ref> is not an original creation of Shakespeare's, but was already a well-known ballad. As such it has surviving arrangements from both before and after Shakespeare's time.<ref>Sanders, 2007, p.&nbsp;30.</ref> The version of it thought to be most authentic, because it closely matches the lyric given by Shakespeare, is known as "The Poore Soule Sate Sighing"<ref>Austern, 2006, p.451-452.</ref> and is one of the most performed pieces of early modern English music.<ref>Austern, Linda Phyllis "The Music in the Play" in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=445}}</ref>

The two other songs sung in the play are the drinking songs in Act 2 Scene 3.<ref>''Othello'' 2.3.65-69 and ''Othello'' 2.3.85-92.</ref> The first of these, "And Let Me The Cannikin Clink", has no surviving arrangement, although it fits to several extant popular tunes.<ref>Austern, 2006, p.446-447.</ref> The other, "King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer", is the seventh of the eight stanzas of the existing ballad "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee".<ref>Austern, 2006, pp.447-448.</ref>

The play has been a popular source for opera. [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]'s 1816 ''[[Otello (Rossini)|Otello, ossia il Moro di Venezia]]'' made Desdemona its focus, and was followed by numerous translations and adaptations, including one with a happy ending.<ref>Sanders, Julie "Shakespeare and Music{{snd}} Afterlives and Borrowings", Polity Press, 2007, p.&nbsp;103.</ref> But the most notable version, considered a masterpiece with a power equivalent to that of the play, is [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s 1887 ''[[Otello]]'',<ref>Gross, John "Shakespeare's Influence" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen (Eds.) "An Oxford Guide: Shakespeare", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;633–644, at p.&nbsp;642.</ref> for which [[Arrigo Boito]]'s libretto marked a return to faithfulness to the original plot, including the reappearance of the pillow as the murder weapon, rather than [[Jean-François Ducis|Ducis]]' dagger.<ref>Hoenselaars, Ton "Shakespeare and Translation" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen (eds.) "An Oxford Guide: Shakespeare". Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;645–657, at p.&nbsp;649.</ref>

''Othello'' was, with ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', one of the two plays which most influenced [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Billy Strayhorn]]'s jazz suite ''[[Such Sweet Thunder]]''. Its opening track (itself titled ''Such Sweet Thunder'', a quotation from Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'')<ref>''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 116–117.</ref> came to stand for Othello telling his tales of travel and adventure to Desdemona, as reported in the play's first act.<ref>''Othello'', 1.3.129–170.</ref><ref>Sanders, 2007, pp.&nbsp;17–18.</ref>

Sometimes the order of the play influencing a composer is reversed, as in the appropriations of classical music by filmmakers retelling Othello's story: for example in the film ''[[O (2001 film)|O]]'', in which excerpts from Verdi's ''Otello'' are used as a theme for Odin (the Othello character) while modern [[Hip hop music|rap and hip-hop]] are more associated with the white college students around him.<ref>Sanders, 2007, p.&nbsp;154, 171–172.</ref>

[[Bob Dylan]]'s song [[Po' Boy (Bob Dylan song)|Po' Boy]] features lyrics in which Desdemona turns the tables on Othello, borrowing the idea of using poisoned wine from the final act of ''Hamlet''.<ref>Buhler, Stephen M., "Musical Shakespeares: Attending to Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;150–174, at pp.&nbsp;171–172.</ref>

==== Literature ====

[[Aphra Behn]]'s 1688 novel ''[[Oroonoko]]'', and its subsequent dramatisation by [[Thomas Southerne]], reset Othello's enslavement in the context of the then-current [[Atlantic slave trade|Atlantic triangle]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=15}}

In addition to his theatrical performances noted above, the play was also central to [[Konstantin Stanislavski]]'s writings, and to the development of his "[[Stanislavski's system|system]]". In particular, the part of Othello is a main subject of his book [[Creating a Role]].<ref>Gillies, p.&nbsp;272.</ref> In it, the characters of Tortzov, the director, and Kostya, the young actor – both partly autobiographical – rehearse the role of Othello in the opening act.<ref>Gillies, pp.&nbsp;277–278.</ref>

A plot-line in [[Farrukh Dhondy]]'s novel ''Black Swan'' involves the central character Lazarus, a freed slave, travelling to London in the time of Shakespeare and authoring many of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, including ''Othello'', in a production of which Lazarus plays the title character, and kills himself.<ref>Lanier, 2002, pp.&nbsp;135–136.</ref> The narrative voice of [[Caryl Phillips]] 1997 novel ''The Nature of Blood'' harangues Othello as a sexual and political sell-out.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=12}} And in Sudanese novelist [[Tayeb Salih]]'s retelling of the ''Othello'' story, ''Season of Migration to the North'', the central character Mustafa Sa'eed, on trial for the murder of his white mistress, refuses to be judged by the standards of the play, declaring:

{{Blockquote|"Othello was a lie."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=118}}}}