“Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” by Nikolaus Harnoncourt

I watched the stage production of Monteverdi’s opera “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” (The return of Ulysses) conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

This stage production of DVD was made in 2002, so everything looked very modern.

It is not only stage setting and costumes that are modern. Harnoncourt’s orchestra in this production is quiet large for early Baroque music. It’s almost mid-size orchestra, not small ensemble as customary of early Baroque music. And it seems like he used very little period instruments. As the result, his music in this production sounded very Classical and quiet loud, which is so different from his other Monteverdi DVD productions.

Not only that, most of the singers in this production including the main characters sung in the straightforward Classical style. They are not at all Baroque singers, which is disappointing because voices of Classical singers tend to be heavier for early Baroque music.

I’ve never really understood why Harnoncourt changed the voice ranges for all the three main characters in his three Monteverdi opera DVD productions. Both tenor roles of Orfeo and Ulysses became baritones and soprano role of Nero became tenor. Musically, these are very drastic changes.

The main character, Ulysses that meant to be and usually sung by tenor, but was sung by Baritone, Dietrich Henschel. This role is the best when it’s sung by tenor as originally intended by Monteverdi. Henschel’s singing had heavy weight that is much suited for Classical operas. Also his singing and acting had little emotional expression.

Ulysses’ wife, Penelope was sung by mezzo-soprano, Veselina Kasarova. She has also very good weight in her singing and acting which had the appealing quality even though, she also sounded like very Classical.

Their son, Telemaco was sung by handsome tenor, Jonas Kaufmann. His voice is very Classical; I couldn’t and cannot imagine him to sing Baroque even after hearing him singing Monteverdi.

All three of them had really heavy voices for this type of music. They’re very good singers, but rather belong to Classical but not to Baroque.

Only the charming couple of Malin Hartelius and Roger Widmer who sung Melanto and Eumete had authentic Baroque voices and singing techniques. They sung very well and only when they sung, it really felt like Monteverdi.

I didn’t care so much for the orchestration or over all quality of the singers in this production. I liked the production of the same opera by William Christie better. Christie’s production had better assemble of wonderful Baroque singers.