Placido Domingo as Otello?
Okay, i come to this review with a prejudice. I like opera and I LOVE Placido Domingo (what a warm, yummy voice he has!) so I gave this version 4 stars. Zeffirelli did a great job in directing yet another of his opera-to-film and the sets and staging is ingenious. I REALLY liked "the temptation scene" set in a learned man's library with maps, atronomy devices (astroglobe?), and the trappings of empiricism surrounding Othello and Iago as Iago attempts to drop specious comments about Desdemona. Very smart! The Christianity stuff was a little heavy-handed and Iago was portrayed not as calculating but as some oddly placed agent of the devil. Weird! But I think that was Verdi's fault, though, and Zeffirelli went with it 100%. Lots of fun! Great singing! If Placido was the "black ram tupping your white ewe," wouldn't you? ;)

The Very Best Otello
Besides being considered the best transcription and translation of Shakespeare into another media by Arrigo Boito, Franco Zeffirelli has created the definitive film of Verdi's Otello. Placido Domingo's singing is brilliant and it is a shame that he was not nominated for an Academy Award for his dramatic acting in this opera. This film is truly a treasure and a masterpiece.

Placido Domingo is the definitive Othello of this generation
I could watch Placido Domingo sing Othello a thousand times and not get tired of it. This production is no exception. I have three of his performances on DVD and on each he finds a new aspect of this character to portray. He is a great artist.

My first and favorite Otello
First things first, I love Katia Ricciarelli and Placido Domingo. They are my two favorite opera singers ever. That being said, I can't say anything bad about them!!

Zeffirelli did a brilliant job with this movie. Everything was absolutely beautiful!

Diaz was a creepy, evil, and great Iago. He's probably one of the best interpreters, in my opinion. Domingo, what can I say? He's the king of all Otello's! It's like Verdi wrote Otello for Domingo! You can not find anyone better. Ricciarelli... I have one thing to say: Try to find a better Desdemona, oh wait.. YOU CAN'T!! I cried the entire Willow Song and Ave Maria. I knew what was coming and I couldn't stop crying. Ricciarelli was GLORIOUS and is, in my opinion, the best Desdemona (especially with Domingo as Otello.)

The rest of the cast was wonderful and props to the costume and make up people! Everyone looked stunning.

I am in love with Otello! =)

A good film totally ruined by the Director.
This film is not for Opera funs especially for connoisseurs of Verdi's Otello. Franco Zeffirelli simply presents his own version of the Opera and NOT VERDI'S. The film starts brilliantly with Otello's ship in the high seas in a most spectacular storm. Problems begin as soon as Otello lands in Cyprus. (Cyprus by the way and not Venice! as mentioned at the back of the DVD by some inexcusably ignorant person). Music from a ballet score that Verdi had written for Paris emerges instead of the expected chorus. The rest of the act is fine except for the fact that Otello points to the stars (the Pleiades) at Desdemona inside his bedroom (where she can see no stars) and two minutes later he takes Desdemona on the harbour for a walk (where she could see the stars) but it is later on the score, so the point is missed. The problems really start from act 2. After Iago's credo, which by the way is very well done, Zeffirelli cuts the famous duet between Otello and Iago (I like that not!) and then alters the sequence of the music in a most indescribable way. From there on we are watching a version of the Opera by Zeffirelli and not Verdi. I bought the Opera for Verdi, thank you very much. No wonder that the great conductor Carlos Kleiber who led the same principals at La Scala, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, refused to be associated with this film.
Domingo was at the time, at the height of his vocal powers and the Otello of the late 20th century. He may not match vocally people like Del Monaco, Martinelli, Zanatello or Tamagnio, but these were singers of the past. Only Del Monaco has a visual record of his performance of Otello in an old black & white 50's film of the opera, with poor visual quality, but with a splendid voice. Diaz is good as Iago, but not excellent and Ricciarelli, adequate but not memorable. As for Lorin Maazel, he is an extremely poor substitute for Carlos Kleiber.
A great pity, for this had the potential to be a great film of Verdi's finest Opera. The performance with Domingo from the Metropolitan Opera is far preferable. His most recent from La Scala, wonderfully conducted by Muti, has a rather aged Domingo and very bad sets. If you can endure the bad quality off the Del Monaco film version, conducted by Toulio Serafin, get it before it disappears from the catalogue.