Plot aside (jealous Black alpha male murders innocent white wife), Rossini’s elegiac bel canto melodrama bears scant resemblance to Verdi’s blood-and-thunder tragedy. And just to muddy the waters a little more, Rossini composed an alternate happy ending, not a unique occurrence in his career. (A decade ago, in Albuquerque, audiences got to choose). The charismatic Daniela Mack stars as Desdemona, in living memory a deluxe vehicle for Frederica von Stade and Cecilia Bartoli. She’s surrounded by three tenors: Khanyiso Gwenxane in the title role, Lawrence Brownlee as her pesky suitor Rodrigo, and Alek Shrader as Iago, who isn’t the Machiavel we know from Shakespeare. Rossini expects bravura from them all. Emilio Sagi’s production is set in the 1920s; Corrado Rovaris conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch