Monteverdi: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria

 Opera no 45

Monteverdi: Il Ritorno  d'Ulisse in Patria

Soloists

Concerto Vocale

René Jacobs

Of the three surviving Monteverdi operas this is the least known. I do have a vague memory of seeing at least some of it on television in the days when opera on mainstream TV channels was not a rarity, but I certainly did not remember any of the music.

This is a generation on from the Peri (opera no 44) and the format is gradually becoming something more like we expect from opera. There is more distinction between the arias the the recitative and an altogether greater sense of dramatic pacing.

Of course there are many editorial decisions to be taken in performing an opera like this. I followed it with the manuscript score on line. Much of this is only written in two parts - a vocal line and a bass line. There is no indication of instrumentation let alone dynamics or speeds. The performance I heard years ago would have been in the Raymond Leppard version which now does seem over romanticised. But a performance with just a basic continuo line would be very hard work.  The conductor here, in his extensive booklets, talks through some of the problems and explains that he had attempted to steer a middle course between the extremes, though he accepts that some people will be scandalised by what he has done!  I'm no expert in the music of this period but it seemed to me most of the time that he had got it about right. But it did seem to become a little more interventionist as it went on - at times I did think that the instrumental additions were overdone - particularly some duetting passages for cornetti - effective as they undoubtedly were. 

It would be fascinating if a set of performing materials for this opera ever turned up. It might give a completely different perspective to our experience of Monteverdi the dramatist.