Short Summary
Based on Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, the opera begins at the moment when Odysseus (Ulisse in Italian) returns home from the Trojan War.
He is dropped off asleep on his home island of Ithaca and disguises himself as a beggar in order to remain unrecognized. The shepherd Eumete takes him in and Odysseus initially only reveals himself to his son Telemaco. His wife Penelope has been torn for 20 years between the hope of Odysseus' return and the courtship of suitors urging her to marry.
Storyline
In Ithaca, Penelope has been waiting twenty years for the return of her husband Ulisse, who disappeared after the Trojan War. Ericlea, Ulisse's old nurse, firmly believes in his return.
The maid Melanto has fallen in love with Eurimaco, one of Penelope's suitors. Eurimaco demands that she open Penelope's "diamond heart" to love again. Against Neptune's prohibition, the Phaeacians have brought his mortal enemy Ulisse to Ithaca. Neptune denounces human freedom, which rejects the belief in gods and fate.
Jupiter allows Neptune to take revenge on the Phaeacians. Ulisse wakes up in Ithaca without recognizing his homeland. He curses sleep, himself and the supposedly disloyal Phaeacians. The goddess Minerva appears and wants to reinstate Ulisse as ruler of Ithaca in order to complete her work of revenge after the fall of Troy. She lets him in on her plan, while Melanto paints Penelope the joys of love. Eumete throws Iro, who is unable to pay the bill, out of his tavern. The aged Ulisse returns to the tavern, but is not recognized by Eumete.
Minerva abducts Ulisses and Penelope's son Telemaco from Sparta to Ithaca and confronts him with his father, whom he was never able to meet. The three suitors Antinoo, Eurimaco and Pisandro harass Penelope, while Eumete reports the arrival of Telemaco and the possible imminent return of Ulisses. The suitors decide to press ahead with Penelope's new marriage with generous gifts, while Minerva draws up a battle plan to settle Ulisse's score with the suitors.
Telemaco torments his mother with a declaration of love for the beautiful Helen, who is partly to blame for the Trojan War.
In Eumete's tavern there is a trial of strength between the unrecognized Ulisse and Iro. The suitors present their gifts to Penelope, but she returns the favor by inviting them to a bow test: whoever is able to draw Ulisse's bow will receive his kingdom and his wife.
The three suitors fail, while Ulisse, with the help of the gods, draws the bow and murders the three suitors. Iro kills himself. Penelope refuses to recognize her husband in the murderer. Minerva, Juno and Jupiter persuade Neptune to renounce his revenge on Ulisse, demonstrating to the mortals that angry gods can be appeased by prayer. Penelope senses in the stranger a spark of the Ulisse who left her twenty years ago to go to war.
Monteverdi and Badoaro have already chosen a very unique perspective on the traditional heroic epic for this opera, which draws our attention to human fragility. The prologue that precedes the action introduces a plot in which all the characters - be they humans or gods - are fragile and have big question marks hanging over them. Of course, Homer's story is kept in mind during the work, there is no other way, but it is crucial that it is not simply retold in the opera, but examined for its contradictions and its potential for pain. Myth is not an unbroken positive concept. We still live in mythical times, in which our human fragility is exposed to irrational powers and forces. We see making myths transparent in terms of our experiences today as the central motif of our theater work. (Jossi Wieler & Sergio Morabito)
Towards the end of his life, Monteverdi preferred to ask questions rather than make statements. We find more impulsiveness and spontaneity in his work. He absorbs all the styles available to him and adapts the musical language to the dramaturgical necessities with enormous flexibility. There are numerous dance fragments and rhythms, scenic effects, caricature-like references within an unusual structure. (Pablo Heras-Casado)
The eponymous "ritorno in patria" describes in three words the ancient Greek term "nostos", or "homecoming": in the literary discussions of antiquity, it was used to summarize Cantos 13 to 23 of Homer's Odyssey , which tell of the actual homecoming of the Troy fighter and wanderer. As a word component "nostalgia", the term is still effective as an element of our everyday language. The plural of "nostos", the "nostoi", was understood to mean the tales told by sailors: sailors' yarns. In the Middle Ages, Odysseus was seen as clever but ignoble, and his wanderings were seen as the punishment of a restlessly wandering murderer. The culmination of this devaluation was the hellish punishment meted out to Odysseus in Dante's Inferno. Among Renaissance scholars, there was a growing number of voices who no longer recognized the poets of the Odyssey without criticism.
