Monteverdi
Il ritorno d’Ulisse, Garsington Opera at Wormsley
★★★★★ Il ritorno d’Ulisse is probably the hardest of Monteverdi’s surviving works to bring off on a contemporary stage. First heard during Venice’s 1639–40 carnival season, Ulisse is now called part of a trilogy of Monteverdi works, although that is only a modern term for what has survived. Ulisse, and Orefo which has already been…
An Arcadian idyll: Orfeo at Garsington Opera
One of the many delights of Garsington Opera is how the glass walls of the pavilion allow for the “action” to begin and continue beyond the actual stage and auditorium. Being set in the exquisite Wormsley Estate, itself an Arcadian idyll, this is wonderfully appropriate for the first act of John Caird’s charming production of…