Written during the final five years of Claudio Monteverdi’s
life and widely acclaimed as his crowning achievement, The Return of
Ulysses was his first opera for the city of Venice, a city known for a network
of thriving and competing opera houses. Combining an action-packed plot with a
musical exploration of the full range of human emotions, The Return of
Ulysses broke new musical ground at its Venice premiere way back in 1640.
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| Fernando Guimarães |
For a limited season this June, Sydneysiders can enjoy The
Return of Ulysses in grand style, based on the closing chapters of Homer’s Odyssey. The performance, staged by Pinchgut Opera, features Portuguese
tenor Fernando Guimarães in the title role. Fernando was last seen in
Australia in the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Handel: Heaven. He has
sung the role of Ulysses to international acclaim including a double Grammy
nomination in 2015 for his portrayal with Boston Baroque.
Australian mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby, whose
performances have earned her rave reviews around the world, joins Fernando as
his deserted wife Penelope. The production will be directed by bold and
inventive American director Chas Rader-Shieber, with set and costumes
designed by Pinchgut favourite Melanie Liertz.
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| Catherine Carby |
Pinchgut Opera is known for presenting operatic masterpieces
from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Since its inception in 2002,
Pinchgut has presented twenty-one rarely performed gems. The creative team is
driven by both musical excellence and academic rigour, and fuelled by a
desire to unearth rarely performed operas and then faithfully present them for
audiences. While other Australian opera companies present the more
familiar operas excellently, Pinchgut is about discovering a new operatic
experience. They have certainly sustained outstanding critical success.
The Return of Ulysses sees the lead character returning
home after ten years of the Trojan War, followed by a further ten years sailing across the oceans. But everything has changed during his absence, and
instead of a hero’s welcome, Ulysses finds his palace occupied by rival kings
keen to seduce his wife Penelope and kill his son. Tension and drama is created
as we wonder whether Ulysses will ever regain his wife and home.
The opera runs for around 3 hours, with an interval, is performed in Italian with English subtitles,
and is bound to thrill an audience who love intense performances, drama and history presented by composers of the time.
The Return of Ulysses runs from the 13th to the 19th June 2019
at Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Tickets and more info available HERE.
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