Review of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse – a small slice of food and luxury | Opera

Lcrying, it would seem, can strike twice in the Chiltern Hills. In 2022, the director John Caird and the conductor Laurence Cummings took part in the most interesting work of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, a seminal work from 1607. Four years later, and it is the time of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, another piece of horror of baroque music theater. Like Ulysses, it took Monteverdi decades to return to the genre that helped define his middle period in Mantua. Inspired by the new commercial world of the late 1630s in Venice, he created a grand spectacle with dramatic details and many special effects to attract crowds.

Robert Jones has salvaged the materials for his Orfeo design, where the musicians sit on green stones surrounded by crumbling walls. The precious clothes, some of which were apparently also used as a means of salvation (although you would not know it), put the Greek gods in the glittering clothes of the Elizabethan. People, dressed in white and cream, feel like they’ve stepped out of an Edwardian house party. Paul Pyant’s beautiful light surrounds everything with a golden aura. Magical moments, such as Neptune rising from the sea, or the arrival of Telemachus on Minerva’s chariot, are dismissed by the irrational wisdom.

From the moment the English Concert entered the theatre, having roused the audience and marched to Wormsley Estate to play Monteverdi’s Toccata, there was a sense of celebration. The performance is polished, with Cummings on chamber organ and beautiful contributions from lirone, harp, two theorbos and three sackbuts. The slow first half could benefit from some background music, but for the most part the pacing is assured.

The cast is led by a solid Ed Lyon in the title role, his flexible tenor as effective when he wakes up as a shipwrecked sailor on an Ithacan beach as he is when he wins over the greasy grifters sniffing around his wife and the throne room. Cecelia Hall is a very sympathetic Penelope, emphasizing her political and emotional struggles with refreshing humor here and there.

Elsewhere, there is a well-crafted design. James Gilchrist captures the honesty of the simple heart and pastoral wisdom of the old shepherd Eumete, although his simple words take a surprising turn. Fiona Kimm is down to earth as Penelope’s nurse Ericlea, and Claire Lees is bright as a button as Minerva. As for the contestants, it’s a unique group led by James Creswell’s pugnacious Antinoo and Benjamin Hulett’s strutting Anfinomo. Stuart Jackson, who, as the charming Iro, can run with the best, almost overcomes you with his despicable hunger.

All told, it heightens the interest of 2028 and the promised L’incoronazione di Poppea.