Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

"Recommended: This tale of steadfast devotion is vividly brought to life by some of the most beguiling, yet moving, music you're ever likely to hear. The drama is rendered more palpable by the intimate relationship of the singers to the instrumentalists. Gardiner opted for a semi-staged performance ... I always find him a wonderfully inspirational conductor and here he elicits from the orchestral players a sensitivity to the text in terms of nuance and inflection. I particularly liked his hand-picked soloists. I would single out Furio Zanasi as an excellent Ulysses, noble yet world-weary ... This is music-making of the highest order".

Læs anmeldelse

"At the root of the success of this performance is Cavina's flexible, ever-changing continuo team ... Most of what he does rings true and works very effectively indeed, thanks to the light touch of the seasoned performers of La Venexiana ... Cavina has assembled a strong and experienced cast ... I loved the recording ... Intimacy is absolutely right ... Overall, this is a measured, well-paced performance".

"Vurdering: Gramophone choice" - "This is a real ensemble performance in the best sense. Cavina and the mainly Italian singers and players of La Venexiana ... are thoroughly at home in the composer's style and mode of expression. They may not be able to boast the starry names ... but there is a unity to their performances that brings a naturalness and intimacy perfect for home listening. Not that Cavina's singers lack anything in skill or character: José Maria Lo Monaco is deep, womanly and tragic as the stoic Penelope, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani is warm and soft-toned as Ulisse ... In fact no one overdoes anything, and that is the recording's strength".

"Stéphane Fuget and Les Épopées have recorded several albums of Lully's 'grands motets' and now turn their attention to the trilogy of Monteverdi's extant operas ... and his cast of singers certainly communicate words and drama with a speechlike intensity that occasionally borders on 'Sprechstimme'. Directing from the harpsichord, he nurtures expressive flexibility that runs the gamut from intimate understatement to animated vigour ... Lucile Richardot's long-suffering and lonely Penelope is the tour de force that she also was for Gardiner but is unleashed here in a fusion of acting and singing by turns feistier and more vulnerable. Valerio Contaldo's relentlessly extrovert Ulysses uses a vivid range of vocal colours".

"Remarkably, it's Gardiner's first recording of the work ... The current performance had minimal staging, with the singers able to move around in front of orchestra and chorus, and this immediacy and freedom comes across in spades - the whole performance is also given real drive by the compact and light-footed continuo group. The cast is, of course, first-rate, and procuces outstanding performances. Furio Zanasi is perhaps the most experienced of Monteverdi leads around, and he finds the whole spectrum of moods that Ulisse undergoes ... The minor roles are uniformly well sung".

"Recording of the month - Editor's choice: Recitatives flicker and spark with detail ... Instrumental textures are spare and speeds swift, and there's a welcome sense of narrative drive ... Text is king, but it's the rhetoric of the English Baroque Soloists that really counts ... Zanasi is a smooth, patrician Ulisse ... There are more classically beautiful accounts of Il ritorno d'Ulisse available, but perhaps none with quite so much life".