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Monteverdi: Il Ritorno D'ulisse In Patria / Christie, Rice, Rensburg, Cornwell, Les Arts Florissants

Monteverdi / Rensburg / Rice / Auvity / Cornwell
Release Date: 04/27/2010 
Label:  Dynamic   Catalog #: 33641  
Composer:  Claudio Monteverdi
Performer:  Xavier Sabata,  Joseph Cornwell,  Christine Rice,  Umberto Chiummo,   ... 
Conductor:  William Christie
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Les Arts Florissants
Number of Discs: 2 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

"This is now the best version of Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses" -- Anthony Pryer, BBC Music Magazine

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567 – 1643):
Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Dramma in musica in three acts
  • Kobie van Rensburg; Christine Rice; Cyril Auvity; Joseph Cornwell; Umberto Chiummo; Juan Sancho; Xavier Sabata; Ed Lyon; H. Bayodi-Nirt; Robert Burt; Marina Rodriguez-Cusí; Claire Debono; Luigi De Donato
  • Les Arts Florissants/William Christie
  • Pierluigi Pizzi, director; Roberto Maria Pizzuto, choreography
    Recording: Teatro Real, Madrid, April 2009
    NTSC All Region; DD 5.1/LPCM 2.0; 16:9; Approx. 175 mins.
    Subtitled in Italian, English, German, French Read more & Spanish

    • Once again William Christie, Les Arts Florissants (celebrating their 30th anniversary at the time of this recording,) and Pier Luigi Pizzi converge as an inspired team in an exciting production.
    • First Spanish performance of the opera on DVD and the second of the staged Monteverdi trilogy by the Teatro Real company, co-produced with La Fenice.
    • This critically acclaimed new release of "L’Orfeo" on DVD has drawn worldwide attention.
    • DVD includes interviews to W. Christie, K. van Rensburg and C. Rice.

    "Last year we gave a performance here in the Teatro Real of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, this year we have Ulisse and next year Poppea. We’re no longer in Mantova and we’re no longer in the Court of the Prince. We’re in Venezia and essentially [at] the beginning of the public opera house. We’re also at the beginning of what will become opera seria, that’s to say beyond the instrumental colors, the great dances and the great pageants, [are] the beautiful effects of the singing, it’s bel-canto and so the orchestral accompaniment becomes simpler.
    This is the essential difference between Orfeo and these last...two operas that were composed toward the end of his life. Orfeo is the beginning of the 17th century, the very beginning, the first ten years [and] he’s a young man, and Poppea and Ulisse are works of old age when he became a resident in Venezia. When Monteverdi was Maestro di Cappella of San Marco he is writing essentially for the new phenomenon, the Venetian opera house." - from William Christie’s interview 2008 included on in the DVD
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    Works on This Recording

    1. Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria by Claudio Monteverdi
    Performer:  Xavier Sabata (Countertenor), Joseph Cornwell (Tenor), Christine Rice (Soprano),
    Umberto Chiummo (Bass), Cyril Auvity (Tenor), Juan Sancho (Tenor),
    Edward Lyon (Tenor)
    Conductor:  William Christie
    Orchestra/Ensemble:  Les Arts Florissants
    Period: Baroque 
    Written: 1640; Venice, Italy 

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