Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is based on the last books of The Odyssey, where Homer narrates of Ulysses (Odysseus) finally arriving back to Ithaca, his homeland, 20 years after having left for the Trojan war. Monteverdi and his librettist Giacomo Badoano paint a true theatrum mundi: the world as a stage where humans play their part for the amusement of the gods. This concept is presented right at the beginning, in the prologue of the opera, where a character representing Human Frailty laments his fate while being tormented and mocked by gods and by the embodiments of Time, Fortune and Love. In Willy Decker's production at Staatsoper Hamburg, countertenor Christophe Dumaux was stripped almost naked, covered in ashes, and then ridiculed and tortured by a crowd of singers.
This was a constant theme in Decker's production. Singers were almost always on stage, even when they were not singing, representing a sort of Greek Chorus participating and commenting on events with their presence and body language. This proved to be an effective way to involve the singers in the performance: most of them were constantly in character, which added to their commitment to the role.
The action took place on a large, tilted, rotating white disk. The gods, dressed in fancy blue evening gowns and tuxedos, appeared in the background at a rich banquet table, where they mostly engaged in watching the men and laughing. The treatment of the gods was one the weakest points in the production: they were reduced to one-dimensional figurines, with no depth and no discernible rational motives. But maybe this was the point – depicting the human view of Fate and the gods ruling it as fickle, inscrutable, silly and cruel.
The orchestra seemed quite large for early music, but conductor Václav Luks, leading the excellent Collegium 1704, managed to keep a reasonable balance between pit and stage. The harpsichord was perhaps on the loud side in its accompaniment of the declamatory style singing typical of Monteverdi; its presence became almost obsessive towards the end of the evening. But, overall, the performance of the continuo was excellent, with some of the musicians climbing onto the stage to play during the rejoicing and dancing scenes.
Ulisse requires some 20-odd characters (with some doubling of roles), and the cast at the Staatsoper was very strong. Sara Mingardo was an astounding Penelope. Her contralto is perfectly suited to early music, while her interpretation was committed and moving. She was on stage for most of the performance wearing sunglasses, distancing herself from the other characters and from the audience, portraying Penelope as an archetype more than a real woman. Still, her lament at the beginning of the opera was heartbreaking, her repetition of "Torna, torna Ulisse" haunting in its desperation. She mastered the composed outrage of the widow with palpable charisma in her stern treatment of the suitors. The contrast in her demeanour during the final duet with Ulysses after she recognizes him (and takes off the sunglasses) was heartwarming.