Coaxing Giuseppe Verdi out of retirement for Otello after a hiatus of 16 years took the concerted effort of a whole cabal of close personal and professional associates. But what clinched the deal was the libretto by Arrigo Boito. Himself a composer of consequence, Boito possessed the all-but-unique ability to reconcile, without compromise, the values of the playhouse and those of grand opera. Remember the storm at sea in Act Two of Shakespeare’s play? Probably not; it is background noise the characters onstage practically ignore. In Verdi, it’s the blastoff that sets the whole rocket in motion, plunging us into the maelstrom like lost souls on Judgment Day. That’s the kind of thing you can pull off with a full orchestra at full tilt and a wailing chorus. But first, you need the idea. Otello has returned to the Teatro alla Scala frequently since its triumphant premiere there on February 5, 1887, but seldom as the inaugural attraction of a new season. This year, it has that distinction. For the strapping tenor Brian Jagde, in his role debut as the Moor of Venice, opening night will be a trial by fire. Hardly having set foot onstage, Otello delivers a 30-second victory bulletin whose blazing tones are meant to strike the soul with awe and wonder. That’s far from the last we hear from Otello in the apocalyptic vein, but he’s a lover, too, passing through a hundred shades of tenderness and loss as his world goes smash. Eleonora Buratto is Otello’s wife Desdemona, whose guileless, angelic music suits her creamy soprano to a T. Luca Salsi, a leading Verdi baritone, insinuates himself into the villainous Iago, goading Otello to jealousy and murder out of what Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously called “motiveless malignancy.” Is it truly motiveless? Perhaps the sharp-witted director Damiano Michieletto will tease out other possibilities. Myung-Whun Chung conducts all performances; in the final three, after Christmas, Arsen Soghomonyan and Roberta Mantegna take over Otello and Desdemona, opposite Roberto Frontali as Iago. —Matthew Gurewitsch