Programs · Episode

MONTEVERDI: The Return of Ulysses

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, March 16, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

His style may not be as familiar as Verdi's or Mozart's, but Monteverdi ranks as opera's earliest great composer — perhaps the first fully to grasp what the true integration of music and drama could ultimately accomplish.  This adaptation of Homer has everything an operatic potboiler needs: political intrigue, natural disaster, lust and romance — and a rather gentle multiple murder thrown in just for good measure. At The Opera features two contrasting recordings of the drama: a period-style, original-instruments recording led by Nicolaus Harnoncourt, and one taking a "modern" approach, led by Raymond Leppard and starring Frederica von Stade.

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

Could there really be a single story that's at the root of everything from a popular 21st-century film and a famously challenging modernist novel, to a 1970's rock hit and an early Baroque opera? The answer is "yes," and it’s a story so old that no one can say when it was actually written.

The film it inspired is the Coen brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou, while the rock tune is Steely Dan's "Home at Last." As for the novel and the opera, their titles both give the story's identity away: They're Ulysses, by James Joyce, and Claudio Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria — The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland.

The tortuous story of the hero Ulysses comes to us from Homer's The Odyssey, an epic that's been dated as far back as 850 BC, or perhaps even earlier. Monteverdi's opera is easier to pin down. He completed it in 1640, at a time when opera, as a genre, was so new that it barely had a name.

The birth of opera, in the early 1600s, wasn't an overnight event. It was an evolutionary process, involving many different styles and composers. But when it comes to opera's founding fathers, Monteverdi stood head and shoulders above all the others. His 1607 opera Orfeo is widely-regarded as the first truly great opera ever composed, and it's still popular today. His last opera, The Coronation of Poppea, was composed in 1643, the same year Monteverdi died, and it also makes frequent appearances on modern stages.

The Return of Ulysses is the only other full scale opera by Monteverdi that survives today, and while it may be less familiar than the other two, it's surely no less beautiful. On At the Opera, host Lisa Simeone brings it to us in two, contrasting recordings, both from the 1970s. One is a period-style, original-instruments recording led by Nicolaus Harnoncourt. The other takes a "modern" approach, with Raymond Leppard leading the London Philharmonic, and a cast including mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and baritone Richard Stilwell.

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor
Concentus Musicus, Vienna
CAST: Sven-Olof Elisasson (Ulysses); Norma Lerer (Penelope); Margaret Baker Genovesi (Melanto/Juno); Max van Egmond (Eumaeus); Anne Marie Mühle (Ericlea); Kai Hansen (Telemachus); Rotraud Hansmann (Minerva); Murray Dickie (Iro); Walker Wyatt (Antinoo); Kurt Equiluz (Pisandro); Paul Esswood (Anfinomo); Nikolaus Simkowsky (Neptune); Ladislaus Anderko (Jupiter) (Warner Classics 696142)

Raymond Leppard, conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Glyndebourne Chorus
CAST: Richard Stilwell (Ulysses); Norma Lerer (Frederica von Stade); Patricia Parker (Melanto); Richard Lewis (Eumaeus); Nucci Condò (Ericlea); Patrick Power (Telemachus); Ann Murray (Minerva); Alexander Oliver (Iro); Ugo Trama (Antinoo); John Fryatt (Pisandro); Bernard Dickerson (Anfinomo); Roger Bryson (Neptune); Keith Lewis (Jupiter); Claire Powell (Juno) (Sony 88985345922)

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