Autumn Trilogy: Wandering Heroes in Search of Peace
Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria
opera
libretto Giacomo Badoaro
music Claudio Monteverdi
Accademia Bizantina
conductor Ottavio Dantone
Pier Luigi Pizzi direction, set and costume design
Oscar Frosio lighting design
L’Humana fragilità Danilo Pastore
Tempo Gianluca Margheri
Fortuna Chiara Nicastro
Amore Paola Valentini Molinari
Giove Gianluca Margheri
Nettuno Federico Sacchi
Minerva Arianna Vendittelli
Giunone Candida Guida
Ulisse Dominik Koeninger
Penelope Delphine Galou
Telemaco Valerio Contaldo
Antinoo Federico Sacchi
Pisandro Danilo Pastore
Anfinomo Jorge Navarro Colorado
Eurimaco Žiga Čopi
Melanto Charlotte Bowden
Eumete Luca Cervoni
Iro Marco Angioloni
Ericlea Margherita Sala
«The epic in its Poetry and the delicacy in its Music so attracted me that I could not keep my pen still»: this is how Federico Malipiero described a performance of Monteverdi’s Ulysses in Venice in 1640, which immediately inspired him to write a novel. His words sum up the ultimate sense of the expressive miracle of the “recitar cantando”: the lyrical outbursts, the repeated passages, the rhythmic hints that seem to take on full form only to return to declamation and veer back towards the arioso… In short, in Monteverdi’s opera, inspired by the Homeric hero’s return to Ithaca, the action and the text ‘motivate’ the score, giving it momentum and substance, expressing those “affections” in which audiences can still recognise themselves today, especially when interpreted by such expert musicians as those gathered under Dantone’s baton.
