Today we’re excerpting from the Monteverdi opera Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. The Return of Ulysses to His Country is an opera consisting of a prologue and five acts to an Italian libretto by Giacomo Badoaro, based on the final portion of Homer’s Odyssey. It was Claudio Monteverdi’s first opera for Venice, and had a very successful run of ten performances at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo beginning in February 1640. The opera was then taken to the Teatro Guastavillani in Bologna, and in 1641 was revived again in Venice. The first modern revival was lead by Vincent d’Indy in Paris in 1925.
In this performance we’ll hear singers from the Chicago Opera Theater, who are joined by Ars Antigua for the Prologue and 10th scene from Act V.
Rizo Arellano, L’Humana Fragilita
David Young, Tempo
Kari Sorenson, Fortuna
Micaela Oeste, Amore
Melina Pineda, Penelope
Melina Pineda, Melanto
Edmundas Seilius, Eurimaco
Robert Burt, Iro
Jason Collins, Ulisse
Stephen Hargreaves, harpsichord
Craig Trompeter, violoncello
Jerry Fuller, violone