Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, Rokia Traoré

Rose Theater
Broadway at 60th Street

Toni Morrison, text
Peter Sellars, director
Rokia Traoré, music and vocals
Tina Benko, actor
Fatim Kouyaté, vocals
Kadiatou Sangaré, vocals
Bintou Soumbounou, vocals
Mamah Diabaté, ngoni
Mamadyba Camara, kora
James F. Ingalls, lighting design

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Othello, this intimate and profound new work is a musical-dramatic collaboration between Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré. Actress Tina Benko and Traoré, representing Othello’s Desdemona and her African nurse Barbary, meditate in poetry and song on violence, womanhood, and the transcendent power of love.

“A melancholic, hopeful voice…often meditative, often evocative music gives the piece poetic depth.”
—Wiener Zeitung

Post-performance discussion on November 3 with Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, and Rokia Traoré, moderated by John Schaefer

Co-produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Wiener Festwochen, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Cal Performances, spielzeit'europa of the Berliner Festspiele, Barbican, Arts Council London, and London 2012 Festival

Desdemona is made possible in part by endowment support from the American Express Cultural Preservation Fund

Generous support provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

Please note: The performance begins promptly at its scheduled time.
There is no late seating.

This performance is approximately two hours long, with no intermission.

These performances will be followed by White Light Lounges.

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