“Il mormorare insieme”. Filologia della traduzione tra Othello di Shakespeare e Otello di Boito-Verdi

This "inter artes" analysis explores the most controversial points of the translation process from Shakespeare’s Othello to Boito-Verdi's Otello. In particular, I focus my attention on the rendering of Desdemona’s famous line "I saw Othello’s visage in his mind" with "ed io vedea tra le tue tempie oscure scender del genio l’eterea beltà", which presupposes a complex play of memories and cultural mediations. A further central problem is constituted by another verse sung by Verdi’s Desdemona and not present in the Shakespearian text: "Ah, com’è dolce il mormorare insieme", a verse in which the entire sense of the Boito-Verdi translation is condensed. The overall thesis of the essay is that the Boito-Verdi translation helps to illuminate the hidden structure of Shakespeare's dramaturgy of Othello, namely how Othello and Desdemona fell in love.