Published in the programme of the English National Opera's 1998 production of Verdi's 'Otello', performed at the London Coliseum. This production of Otello featured set design and a new English-language translation by Tom Phillips.

When David Freeman asked if I would design this production, that feeling of delighted terror which marks the beginning of artistic adventure elicited an immediate yes.

In a quest for authenticity (and the phoneless quietude necessary for rumination) he and I went, so to speak, 'on location' to the original scene of Otello's triumph and catastrophe, Cyprus, where the whole action of the opera takes place. More particularly we went to Famagusta where 'Otello's Castle' is a tourist shrine. I hasten to say (in view of current) opera house scandals) we did this at our own expense.

Famagusta is currently at the southern rim of the Turkish sector. No doubt all may change and change again, yet the polarities of Islam/Christianity, Asia/Europe remain the same. Otello may or may not be a precise historical figure but he certainly belongs to the geopolitical framework of Shakespeare's day, and Verdi's and our own.

Eating in the Café Otello which nestles against the castle walls (each of which in thickness is as wide as the whole Coliseum stage) we talked of the when and how of the production. The first decision in view of the persistent relevance of the piece was to place it firmly in the present. A new production set in the military world of today would evidently call for a new translation, which I undertook to provide, not only for the challenge but to become (at least for a designer) uniquely acquainted with the work, to know every note and word of it.

On our way to the castle and the town we regularly passed an army base, the contemporary equivalent in terms of wire mesh and electrical installation of Otello's stronghold. Thus on a brief trip the key elements of the production fell into place and we saw the drama being played out in a modern military station with the same functions of defence and observation as the original.  > >

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