Monteverdi, 'Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria' : (new production premiere) soloists Orchestra of Welsh National Opera (conductor) Rinaldo Alessandrini, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff 17.09.2006 (BK)

 

 

 

 

Sara Fulgoni as Penelope

 

 

Sara Fulgoni: Penelope
Ulisse: Paul Nilon
Telemacho: Ed Lyon
Ericlea: Elizabeth Vaughan
Fortune, Melanto: Sarah Tynan
Eurimaco: Andrew Tortise
Love: Charlotte Ellett
Human Frailty, Pisandro: Iestyn Davies
Eumete: Geoffery Dolton

Time, Nettuno, Antinoo: Clive Bayley
Giove, Anfinomo: Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks
Minerva: Elizabeth Atherton
Iro: Neil Jenkins
Nymphs: Anitra Blaxhall, Daniella Ehrlich, Laura Pooley

Director: David Alden

Sets: Ian MacNeil
Costumes: Gideon Davey
Lighting: Simon Mills
Musical Director: Rinaldo Alessandrini

 

'I can see nothing wrong with it,' the woman in front of me snapped at her companion, as we walked back after the interval. Others did though, and their drift was mostly about distraction from the music. There were boos for the production team at the end of the performance.

Although the music and singing are of high quality, David Alden's new 'Ritorno'  is busy and confusing and he has overstepped a mark this time. Conceptually and visually similar to his 2001 staging in Munich - there are parallels between the sets and a repeat of the portrayal of Ulisse as a wheel chair-bound war veteran - this version feels mostly like a feeble adolescent attempt to court controversy.  Though it's reasonable to believe, as Alden  does, that psychoanalytic sub-texts can be read into this drama, the important questions about his realisation  concern the amount of kitschy comedy and  sexual allusion used to spell out 'meaningful'  messages. Jokes and  innuendo fill the ninety minute first half often failing to amuse much or shock: but they do interfere with the music.

 

Charlotte Ellett as Love

 

The prologue takes place in front of a  curtain with SICUREZZA (safety /security) written on it for our benefit. The character Time torments Human Frailty threatening to grind him with his teeth and whoops! - giant dentures poke through a doorway. Love (complete with Cupid's Bow moustache, knee trousers, jacket and bowler hat) shoots Frailty with her bow and not one but a dozen arrows sprout instantly from his chest. As Frailty grapples with the teeth, a huge tentacle and an enormous claw, my goodness how we chuckle at the insecurity of the human condition. Laughter (as psychoanalysts say) is only  a defence against anxiety - but then we knew that already.

 

More jokes come fast and furious, some  bad, some literally god-awful and some just plain obscure. A neon sign says 'Olympus - Vacancy ' (because Juno /Giuonone never appears in the opera, we suppose) and the drunken Giove 'romps' (as the tabloids say these days) with nymphs in military caps, bustiers and fishnets. Minerva appears first in a flying helmet and leather coat, but  reveals later on  that she's wearing a  tulle Fairy Godmother frock and a sash saying ΠΡΩΜ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙАΣ (Prom Queen)  underneath. Nettuno wears a wet-suit and eats goldfish while the herdsman Eumete shepherds model cats, one of which is served up for  the glutton Iro's lunch.

Clive Bayley as Nettuno

 

Fortunately, things improve in the second half. There are fewer overt clues about sub-texts even though Penelope's suitors are all sleazy characters who smoke cigarettes constantly to show how decadent they are. While Mr. Alden's assertion that Minerva champions Ulisse principally because she wants to compensate for her own unsatisfactory relationship with Giove seems a little far-fetched (she was the Goddess of warriors after all) his portrayal of the darker side of the relationship between the naive and love-struck Melanto and the bad-lot Eurimaco (shown graphically in Part Two) is very convincing. As the drama reaches its conclusion with the bow-stringing contest and Ulisse's routing of the suitors, the original logic of the narrative is restored to some extent.  Even so, having upstaged the text's comic relief character Iro with all the other jokes, Mr Alden has to have him cook cat-burgers (how disgusting is that? ) on  a portable cooker and commit suicide by putting his head inside its oven at the end.  Generally though,  the second half is better than the first.

 

Elizabeth Atherton (Minerva) and Ed Lyon (Telemacho)

 

Despite the limitations, all Monteverdi lovers should see this production. Early music specialist Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts his WNO band - modern strings plus baroque cello, harp, theorbos, harpsichord and wind machine - with confident assurance, lacking only a degree of rhythmic impetus here and there. The singing is both uniformly excellent and stylistically convincing and Paul Nilon's Ulisse is polished, noble and superbly sung throughout. The whole cast in fact,  brings out the full richness and beauty of this magnificent score and there is particularly fine singing from Ed Lyon (Telemacho), Sarah Tynan (Fate, Melanto), from counter - tenor Iestyn Davies (Human Frailty, Pisandro) and from Elizabeth Atherton (Minerva)

As Penelope, Sara Fulgoni seemed to be slightly ill at ease during her Act I lament, 'Torna, torna, deh torna Ulisse' but became  more comfortable as the evening progressed. Her final duet with Paul Nilon - after Ulisse  persuades her that he really has returned - was simply lovely.

 

All in all then, another highly musical performance from WNO and well up to the customary standard. If the production could be simplified - perhaps even a little - then much more of its worth would shine through.

 

 

Bill Kenny

 

Pictures © Catherine Ashmore 2006