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The theatrical character of Iago and the emotions he expresses and evokes were laid bare in the Callaway Auditorium last month.

The anti-hero of the stage is a central character in both Shakespeare's play, Othello , and the Verdi/Boito opera Otello .

The WA Opera Company's production of Otello for the Perth International Arts Festival prompted the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) to stage this event, to complement the production.

An engaged and lively audience of academics, students and theatre and opera buffs was fascinated by the unfurling discussion on the emotions depicted and experienced in the play and the opera.

Professor Bob White, a distinguished Shakespeare expert from CHE, put the emotional experiences under scrutiny by exploring the etymology of the words ‘dread' and ‘dreadful' and looked at how applicable they were to the presentation of the narrative, the characters - in particular Iago - and the feelings evoked in Shakespeare's play and which elements of these emotions are taken up by Verdi and Boito in their opera.

Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson, Callaway/Tunley Chair of Music and Deputy Director of CHE, described the musical and textual analysis of Iago by the Artistic Director of WA Opera, Joseph Colaneri, as brilliant.

"Baritone James Clayton (who played Iago in the West Australian Opera's co-production for PIAF) then joined Colaneri who played an orchestral reduction on the piano to perform (Iago's) Credo to astonishing impact," Professor Davidson said.

"Clayton's bodily and vocally penetrating performance offered palpable physical, visual and emotional impact - shocking, brilliantly expressed contained emotion."

World-acclaimed voice coach and theatre director Professor Kristin Linklater from Columbia University then offered her insights into the use of the spoken voice to capture and convey the essence of Shakespeare's subtle text.

Professor Linklater is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at CHE, co-sponsored in an arts industry partnership with Black Swan State Theatre Company. "Linklater worked with actors Humphrey Bower (as Iago) and Kenneth Ransom (as Othello) to show how micro-variations in metre, pitch, and timbre can generate extraordinary impact, giving nuanced emphasis and so depth of meaning  to Shakespeare's potent text," Professor Davidson said.

"This event was testimony to the rich exchange that can take place between arts academics and arts industry partners, and clearly demonstrated how emotions and understanding of them are vital to advance understanding and experience of the arts and our own histories."