A welcome return: Monteverdi's Ulysses’ Homecoming

By Charlotte Valori, 03 November 2016

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Reviewed at Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden on 2 November 2016

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

English Touring Opera

Jonathan Peter Kenny, Conductor

James Conway, Director

takis, Set Designer

Benedict Nelson, Ulisse

Carolyn Dobbin, Penelope

Nick Pritchard, Telemaco

Martha Jones, Amor, Melanto

Robert Anthony Gardiner, La Fortuna, Eurimaco

Katie Bray, Minerva

Clint van der Linde, Ericlea, Pisandro

John-Colyn Gyeantey, Eumete

Adam Player, Iro

Andrew Slater, Antinoo, Neptuno, Tempo

Old Street Band

Mark Howland, Lighting Designer

Art imitates art in ETO’s bracing new Pagliacci

Dominic Lowe, 10th April

Divorced from Cavalleria rusticana, English Touring Opera’s contemporary take on Leoncavallo’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes.

****1

English Touring Opera transfers Donizetti to the English coast

Dominic Lowe, 27th September

L'elisir d'amore may not immediately bring Skegness or Romney to mind, but ETO's new production works quite well there... just look out for the seagulls!

***11

Blissful and hard-boiled: I Capuleti e i Montecchi at ETO

David Karlin, 22nd February

Eloise Lally shifts the Romeo and Juliet love story into New York mafia families. Jessica Cale and Samantha Price provide blissful bel canto as the star-crossed lovers.

****1

A tender Shakespeare-inspired curio from English Touring Opera

Susannah Moody, 15th February

ETO kicks off its spring season with What Dreams May Come, a strange and moving staging of songs inspired by William Shakespeare.

***11

Theatrically poverty-stricken: ETO's Blond Eckbert

Mark Valencia, 18th October

Judith Weir's cryptic folk opera lacks the narrative propulsion necessary to enthral an audience, and without resolution there is no catharsis.

**111

ETO's The Snowmaiden melts the heart and gladdens the ears

Dominic Lowe, 28th September

Olivia Fuchs' production of Rimsky-Korsakov's charming fable for ETO begins its tour in Hackney and is worth travelling to see. Catch this thoughtful production in a town near you.

****1

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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.

A welcome return: Monteverdi's Ulysses’ Homecoming, English Touring Opera