This video is reserved for premium users. Join us and watch it in full now!

Live
Only on
Certain chapters are not available.
Thank you for your understanding.
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Claudio Monteverdi, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

Prologue: "Mortal cosa son io"

I: "Di Misera Regina"

I: "Duri E Penosi"

I: "Superbe è l'uom"

I: "In questo basso mondo"

I: "Dormo Ancora O Son Desto?"

I: "Cara e lieta gioventù"

I: "Pastor d'armenti può"

I: "D'Ulisse generoso"

I: "Lieto cammino, dolce viaggio!"

I: "O gran figlio d'Ulisse"

II: "Eurimaco, la donna"

II: "Sono l'altre regine"

II: "All'allegrezze dunque"

II: "Compagni: udite?"

II: "Ecco l'arco d'Ulisse"

II: "Son vani, oscuri pregi"

II: "O dolor! O martir!"

II: "Fiamma è l'ira"

II: "Gran Giove, alma de' Dei"

II: "Ericlea, che vuoi far?

II: "Ogni vostra ragion"

II: "Illustratevi: o Cieli"

Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

Klaus-Michael Grüber (director), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor) — With Vesselina Kasarova (Penelope), Dietrich Henschel (Ulisse), Jonas Kaufmann (Telemaco)...

Opera
Subscribers

Cast

Klaus-Michael Grüber — Stage director

Gilles Aillaud — Set designer

Eva Dessecker — Costume designer

Jürgen Hoffmann — Lighting designer

Vesselina Kasarova — Penelope

Malin Hartelius — Melanto

Martina Janková — Fortuna / Giunone

Program notes

After ten years battling in the Trojan War—and another ten on an epic journey homeward—Ulysses returns to his homeland. Disguised as a beggar, the king of Ithaca must recover his wife, his son, and his people...

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Venice, 1640), directed here by Klaus-Michael Grüber and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt ("The musical adventurer par excellence, the scholarly conductor with temperament, the thinking musician who makes music with rough edges“—Gramophone), achieves a perfect dramatic balance, stirring the imagination and instantly transporting the viewer to a long-ago time. The all-star cast features one of the earliest recorded appearances by the great Jonas Kaufmann, who makes his presence felt as Ulisse's son Telemaco!

Claudio Monteverdi was a key player not only in creating the opera as we know it; he also spent nearly forty years after 1607's L'Orfeo experimenting and innovating in the form, contributing to the evolution of the musical-artistic genre that—for centuries, until the advent of cinema—would dominate Western cultural life. Ulisse is one of his three extant operas, all of which are among the highest achievements of the form.
 

A closer look: featured composers

medici.tv - Back to medici.tv

The world’s premier resource for classical music programming: stunning live events from the world’s most prestigious halls, plus thousands of concerts, operas, ballets, and more in our VOD catalogue!

Our programs

Learn more

Useful links

  • Cookie Settings

Follow us

© MUSEEC SAS 2025 . With the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the CNC.

Europe media CNC