Verdi: Otello;

Plácido Domingo may be the most famous Otello of our times, but most seasoned opera-goers will tell you that Canadian tenor Jon Vickers was the best. Compared to Domingo, the Vickers voice is bigger, more focused, less textured, and lyrical; the Vickers temperament is much more volatile, like a coiled snake whose fury--when unleashed--was truly terrible. He recorded it twice; this is his best performance. Everything else about this recording--baritone Tito Gobbi as Iago, conductor Tullio Serafin, and the Rome Opera forces--is up to his standard with one significant exception: the miscast Leonie Rysanek as Desdemona. Her covered Germanic soprano sounds oddly matronly and remote. But with Vickers--at mid-price--this is still a good deal. --David Patrick Stearns