Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Country), SV 325

Now that we can hope to sail a little more serenely, we will be able to complete the last episode of the Monteverdi trilogy that Iván Fischer briefly began for us. After L’Orfeo and Poppea, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, the least known of Claudio Monteverdi’s three surviving operas, will complete the journey by taking us to Ithaca. The work has suffered from being rediscovered in modern times in the form of an incomplete manuscript score, and the authenticity of this Monteverdian “ugly duckling” was long doubted. However, the composer’s hallmark can be seen in the variety of the opera’s musical styles: the fashionable forms of the arioso, duets and ensembles rub shoulders with the declamatory recitatives of the seconda prattica developed in L’Orfeo. With rare eloquence, he develops the personalities, feelings and emotions of the many characters, both divine and human, to produce the most tender and moving part of the triptych. After his long journey back from Troy, Ulysses finally returns to Ithaca, where a trio of malevolent suitors are pestering his faithful wife, Penelope. The man of many devices faces his ultimate challenge: to make constancy and virtue triumph over treachery and deceit. After Purcell’s retake of the Aeneid retaken in turn by Peeping Tom, we needed another famous and wacky Belgian drama collective to deal with the Odyssey. Founded in 2008, FC Bergman quickly made a name for itself with its anarchistic, slightly chaotic, but highly evocative and poetic theatrical language. Through an ingenious interweaving of film and theatre, acting and stunning stage design, they tell the story, sometimes without words, of a world where humans struggle in vain against the windmills of their existence. The subject of Ulysses, repeatedly shipwrecked on his way home, seems to be just the thing for this group, which brings together, according to one critic, “the mystical naturalism of Romeo Castellucci, the melancholic absurdism of Christoph Marthaler, and the dancing dynamics of Pina Bausch.” Their first operatic escapade Les Pêcheurs de perles in 2018, was a big hit in Antwerp, Luxembourg and Lille. It is only logical that the continuation of this fantastic odyssey should take place in Geneva. After being game for an in-depth rereading of Mozart’s Seraglio, Fabio Biondi returns to Geneva, this time with his ensemble Europa Galante, for an interpretation of The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland that we hope will arouse just as much passions… Heading the large cast of specialists in the title role, the charismatic English tenor well known to Baroque music fans, Mark Padmore, and as Penelope, the dazzling Sara Mingardo, an unforgettable Neris in Medea at the GTG in 2015.