Round up of the reviews of Otello at the Barbican

Otello stile inglese (Intermezzo)

the clarity and ease of O'Neill's thrilling top notes hinted at a long-gone golden age.

Gerald Finley's intelligently drawn Iago schemed with devious charm. But ultimately he lacks the fundamental heft for this role, as even a golden voice spinning meticulously-crafted phrases cannot conceal.

Edward Seckerson in the Independent shows here how to paint a picture with words:

piccolo-flecked lightening strafing the horizon

O’Neill has a real trumpet-toned top to his voice and like all true warriors he is fearless...it was refreshing, no thrilling, to hear a young singer really nail those crazed top notes. His martial outburst in act two had splendid rigour. For sure O’Neill lacked the middle-voice heft and shrouded darkness for the harrowing third act monologue but he was not found wanting in any other respect, indeed his sensitive and expressive way with text truly brought a lump to the throat in the great final scene.

Gerald Finley’s sonorous and charismatic Iago was more gracious, more mellifluous, with the musical line, his deceits positively slipping off the tongue, his “covered” ingratiations veiling the evil intent. A tremendous performance, a whiff of theatricality in every line.

Guardian

O'Neill sang tirelessly, with wonderful freedom and sustained intensity, even if purists might regard his sound as not an authentically Verdian one.Alongside him, Gerald Finley's Jago was horribly plausible too, honey-toned yet unsettlingly amoral in the second-act credo, while beauty of tone was also the hallmark of Allan Clayton's Cassio. All of them projected the text with great clarity

Financial Times

With minimal rehearsal O’Neill took command: it is basically a tightly focused tenor with a heroic upper extension, which he controls with clean confidence and natural musicality. He may not be a Moor in the burnished Domingo mould, but his steely core is impressive and he fines it down where necessary.

The most Italianate singing – and by far the best diction – came from Gerald Finley, not a singer hitherto known as a Verdi baritone. His Iago prompts a full reassessment: it had colour, character, credibility. Among a fine group of comprimarios, Allan Clayton’s Cassio showed most promise.

Two nights, one disturbing theme. These Verdi productions were world-class accounts of Shakepeare’s critique on identity (Times)

Gerald Finley was superb as Iago: insidiously sinister, yet sustaining a wonderfully suave line. A host of rising singers — Allan Clayton, Matthew Rose and Ben Johnson among them — took minor parts with distinction. And the New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill, stepping in at 24 hours’ notice to tackle the title role for the first time in his life, gave an immense performance. If he can cultivate more tonal lustre to go with his typhoon-force top notes, he will make the Moor his own.

What's on Stage

everything came together in the second half. The Act 3 ensemble was ravishing and Act 4 was simply sublime... O’Neill’s “Niun me tema” was almost unbearably moving, showing that he has a great Otello in him and it’s not too far out of reach. Support was strong throughout the evening. If one is tempted to liken Ben Johnson’s Rodrigo and Allan Clayton’s Cassio to Ant and Dec, it didn’t detract from the beauty of their singing

MusicOMH

Simon O’Neill ... his performance of the title role was a triumph.

Gerald Finley sang with his usual musicianship, but by no stretch of the imagination is he a Verdi baritone

O’Neill delivered. His voice is not particularly beautiful or distinctive but by goodness he certainly knows how to give a performance. From his no-holds barred entrance, through to the sublime love duet which closes the first act, his voice was superbly controlled and where many more famous exponents of the role often resort to crooning, falsetto and other tricks to hide their vocal failings, O’Neill hit every note squarely, and his phrasing was faultless. He was tireless and still had plenty of mezza voce left for a quite heart-rending death scene. Watching him grow into the role over the next few years is a mouth-watering prospect as currently I can’t think of an Otello to touch him.