Beset by suitors, Ulysses’s wife Penelope anxiously awaits her husband’s homecoming. When he returns unrecognised, Penelope invites everyone to an archery contest with her hand as the first prize. Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is one of the first modern operas ever composed. In his playful staging of the Homeric homecomer’s story, director Markus Bothe puts the accent on ‘modern’, quoting sundry theatre traditions from puppet and street theatre to Commedia dell’arte and placing the musicians centre stage. Ulisse / Humana Fragilità (Prologue): Nikola Diskić
Penelope: Marie-Belle Sandis
Telemaco: David Lee
Melanto / Amor (Prologue): Eunju Kwon
Eumete: Christopher Diffey
Iro: Uwe Eikötter
Pisandro / First Phaeacian: Pascal Herington
Anfinomo / Second Phaeacian: Ilya Lapich
Antinoo / Third Phaeacian: Valentin Anikin