Monteverdi: II Ritorno Dulisse in Patria

WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE PERFECTLY RECORDED
Updated Jan 12, 2010. Impressionist staging that really works. Every singer is excellent. Sound in LPCM mode puts this DVD in my best sounding list of recordings. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to explore early opera. After extensive listening I am impressed by how flexible Kasarova's voice is. As Octavian or Sesto she sings very dramatically with a powerful sound. Here she is singing over a very soft early instrument orchestra, thus she is able to sing with a wider range of vocal colors. Due to the high sound levels of modern orchestras singers are pushed hard to be heard. In my opinion, modern orchestras are perceived to be at least four times as loud as early orchestras. this translates to a 20 dB increase in sound presure level, or more importantly, one hundred times the sound energy level of an early orchestra. It is no wonder that singers in the past had a greater range of expression. The singers on this DVD prove that highly expressive singing is still...

Harnoncourt's 21st century 'Il Ritorno' - no disappointment.
This can be called 'Renaissance' opera verging on baroque. The vocal style is different from the later baroque-classical-belcanto-romantic styles. The entire cast encompasses many singers, and the work could really be described as a study in the renaissance operatic vocal style.
And good old Harnoncourt is 'the' expert in this work, so I learnt from another DVD of this composition conducted by him some 30 odd years ago.
There also used to be an old CD recording of this work by the much younger Harnoncourt, which appears to be out of print by now.
In the simple staging and 'no nonsense' approach by the director, the audience can safely concentrate on the wonderful music.
The musical side of this production is nothing less than superb.
There is almost not one single weaklink in the entire big cast. Perhaps's Isabel Rey's goddess of love does compare a bit disfavourably with the rest, but her part is not significant enough to upset the generally high musical and...

Near Miss
This came so close to being satisfactory! Harnoncourt was brilliant as usual, and all the singers were of highest calibre. The camera-work was not too distracting, and the sets/costumes were inoffensive. But still -- for me, to be worth owning, an Opera DVD has to be something you would want to watch over and over. For the price, it really needs to be.

Harnoncourt was sparkling, as ever, and the music had no lack of energy. Though this was in itself kind of a problem, since there was nowhere to go for scenes like the final one where it really needs to sound a bit more ebullient than the preceding scenes. Harnoncourt surely has better sense -- my guess is that he accommodated the director, as he must have when he decided to cut Ericlea's women-can't-keep-their-mouths-shut aria (because it's politically incorrect?) even though this made her final aria inexplicable.

It was the staging that really cut into the production's appeal. Done in modern drab, the gods were...

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