Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria [The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland]
Dramma in musica” in a prologue and three acts with a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro

Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, direction and staging
Elsa Rooke, staging
Isabella Gardiner, costumes
Patricia Hofstede (Atelier Paradis), costumes
Rick Fisher, lights

Furio Zanasi, baritone (Ulisse)
Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano (Penelope)
Krystian Adam, tenor (Telemaco)
Hana Blažíková, soprano (Minerva / Fortuna)
Gianluca Buratto, bass (Tempo / Nettuno / Antinoo)
Michał Czerniawski, countertenor (Pisandro)
Gareth Treseder, tenor (Anfinomo)
Zachary Wilder, tenor (Eurimaco)
Anna Dennis, soprano (Melanto)
John Taylor Ward, baritone (Giove)
Francesca Boncompagni, soprano (Giunone)
Robert Burt, tenor (Iro)
Francisco Fernández-Rueda, tenor (Eumete)
Carlo Vistoli, countertenor (L’Umana fragilità)
Silvia Frigato, soprano (Amore)
Francesca Biliotti, contralto (Ericlea)

In the current state of our knowledge, it would seem that Monteverdi composed eight operas between 1607 and 1642. However, only the scores of L'Orfeo, Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, from L'incoronazione di Poppea and an excerpt from Arianna (the famous Lamento) have come down to us. These four works are so dissimilar that several musicologists have doubted their attribution.

For L'Orfeo and Arianna's Lamento, which were published by their author, the paternity of the "divine Claudio" cannot be questioned. On the other hand, Ulisse and Poppea pose thorny problems, because of the absence of autograph or printed score, but also of the aspect fragmentary and contradictory literary and musical sources.

Only one manuscript copy of Ulisse has been preserved, rediscovered in 1880 at the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna by the historian August Wilhelm Ambros. This anonymous handwritten score was immediately attributed to Monteverdi: several old opera catalogues (Ivanovich in 1681, Groppo after 1745) had mentioned the existence of an Ulisse by Monteverdi, created during the 1640-1641 season at the Teatro San Cassiano. , the oldest operatic and paying theatre in Venice (the opera appeared there in 1637). The attribution of the score seemed confirmed at the end of the 19th century, when a handwritten copy of the libretto by Giacomo Badoaro was found at the Biblioteca Marciana of Venice.

It has long been questioned why the score was in Vienna, where it had not been performed, rather than in Venice. Since the 1610s, Monteverdi had maintained close relations with the dynasty of Habsburg (orders, covers, dedications...). Moreover, Emperor Ferdinand II had married Eleonora Gonzaga in 1622. In 1640, Monteverdi dedicated his Selva morale e spirituale to the daughter of his former patron. It is likely that he sent her a copy of his last opera, in the hope that it would be performed in Vienna, as the Ballo delle ingrate had been in 1628. The Viennese score does not, however, seem to be a faithful copy of the Monteverdi original of 1640. In fact, Badoaro's libretto presents five acts and the score contains only three; the prologue has no connection in the two sources; several scenes are transformed while others are missing. The mystery remains intact today: we still do not know who was the instigator of these transformations.

This enigmatic Ulisse is nevertheless one of the greatest lyrical masterpieces of the nascent Baroque. Badoaro composed an epic libretto of rare fidelity to The Odyssey (cantos XII to XXII), reproducing almost literally some of Homer's dialogues. The music has a depth and variety of affetti that appear to be Monteverdi's signature. Thus, the characterization of the central character of Penelope, all in lamenti sprinkled with striking dissonances, presents "representative" writing techniques close to the Ballo delle ingrate (1608) or the Lamento della ninfa (1638).

Furthermore, the ornate style Minerva's virtuoso arias are part of a cantar passaggiato (more characteristic of the late Renaissance than of the 1640s) which is found in L'Orfeo and in certain religious compositions. Finally, the numerous ensembles (trios of the suitors, duets of Melantho and Eurymachus, etc.) evoke the madrigals of Monteverdi's seconda prattica, in particular the pages of soloists with which he peppered his seventh and eighth books (1619 and 1638). The interventions instrumental pieces, written for a five-part ensemble, are fewer in number than in L'Orfeo, but more important than in Poppea.