Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

Composer: Monteverdi, Claudio

Librettist/Text Author: Badoaro, Giacomo

Conductor: Harnoncourt, Nikolaus

Orchestra: Scintilla Orchestra, La

Anfinomo: Oro, Martin

Ericlea: Kallisch, Cornelia

Eumete: Mohr, Thomas

Fortuna / Giunone: Jankova, Martina

Iro: Schasching, Rudolf

L'humanita fragilita / Ulisse: Henschel, Dietrich

Melanto: Hartelius, Malin

Minerva / Amore: Rey, Isabel

Penelope: Kasarova, Vesselina

Pisandro: Zysset, Martin

Telemaco: Kaufmann, Jonas

Set Designer: Aillaud, Gilles

Costume Designer: Dessecker, Eva

Lighting Designer: Hoffmann, Jurgen

Stage Director: Gruber, Klaus Michael

Television Director: Breisach, Felix

---

Date of Production: 2002

Venue: Zurich Opera House

Playing Time: 02:34:44

Catalogue Number: P103

Synopsis

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

---

The renowned collaborations between Zurich Opera and Nikolaus Harnoncourt in the 1970s and early '80s were crucial milestones in projecting historically-aware performance away from historicism-for-its-own-sake, towards vitally-conceived productions for contemporary audiences. Il Ritorno enjoyed great success in 1977, in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's imaginative staging, in which Harnoncourt's opulent instrumental palette lifted the hearts of many, though only the eyebrows of the purists. In this musical 'revival' (the production is entirely new with its simple, fresh, whitewashed, open space and modern mosaic floor), to celebrate 25 years of the swashbuckling original, Harnoncourt allows the nobility of the score to roll unimpeded by the driven intensity of the older recorded account on Teldec from 1971 (9/89R).

The vocal contributions are also more eloquent than ever with outstanding contributions from the two protagonists, Vesselina Kasarova and Dietrich Henschel; can Monteverdi have ever heard this, his first opera for Venice's Teatro San Cassiano in 1640, sung with such an extraordinary range of vocal beauty and immediacy of expression? This extends to all the characters, notably in the wonderful discussion between the truculent Neptune and appeasing Jupiter, in Act 1, scene 4, where comedy and gravitas are superbly juxtaposed. Rudolf Schasching's comic Iro is brilliantly characterised and Isabel Rey's Minerva and Malin Hartelius' Melanto are accomplished throughout. Martina Jankova completes the trio of exceptional female minor roles with an exquisite 'Procurero la pace' near the end.